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THE ANSGAR MONUMENT IN BREMEN. 



LIFE PICTURES 



FROM 



SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 



BY 



NILS FORSANDER 
ii 




ROCK ISLAND, ILL. 

AUOUSTANA BOOK CONCERN, PRINTERS 



0<* 



COPYRIGHT, 1913, 

BY 

Nils Forsani>er. 



■7<r 

©CI.A361219 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

To the Young People of the Augustana Synod 7 

The Church of Sweden in the Middle Ages. 
I. Ansgar and the First Christian Missionaries to 

Sweden 9 

II. St. Erik and St. Birgitta 26 

III. Archbishops of Lund and of Uppsala 39 

The Reformation Period in the Church of 

Sweden. 

IV. Olavus Petri 52 

V. The Council of Uppsala 69 

The Church of Sweden from the Reformation 
to the Nineteenth Century. 
VI. King Gustavus Adolphus and his Court Chaplains 89 
VII. Haquin Spegel, Jesper Svedberg, and Anders 

Nohrborg 100 

The Church of Sweden in the Nineteenth 
Century. 

VIII. Johan Olof Wallin and Henrik Schartau 116 

IX. Carl Olof Rosenius, Peter Wieselgren, and Peter 

Fjellstedt 132 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE. 

The Ansgar Monument in Bremen 1 

St. Birgitta 8 

Cathedral of Lund 24 

Gustavus Vasa 40 

The Olavus Petri Monument in Stockholm 44 

Laurentius Petri 52 

Cathedral of Uppsala 72 

Gustavus Adolphus 88 

Haquin Spegel 92 

Jesper Svedberg 100 

Anders Nohrborg 104 

Johan Olof Wallin 120 

Henrik Schartau 124 

Carl Olof Rosenius 132 

Peter Wieselgren 136 

Peter Fjellstedt 152 



8 

the hope that they may help you to attain a better 
understanding and a keener appreciation of our 
spiritual heritage from the old mother Church. 
May the Lord give us all a will to love Him and 
His Church, and power earnestly to contend for 
the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 
Yours in Christ, 

NILS FORSANDER. 
Augustana College and Theological Seminary, 
Rock Island, Illinois, September, 1913. 



[The net proceeds of the sale of this book will be added 
to the Dormitory Fund of Augustana Theological Semi- 
nary.] 







ST. BIRGITTA. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MID- 
DLE AGES. 



Ansgar and the First Christian Mis- 
sionaries to Sweden. 






world. 



|HURCH History is the record of God's 
gracious, wonderful and mighty deeds, 
showing how by his Spirit and Word 
he rules his Church and conquers the 
At the same time Church History is an 
instructive lesson, showing us that in His wisdom 
and grace He has appointed and endowed certain 
men and times for the upbuilding of the Church 
in all lands, and for the vanquishing of the works 
of Satan. 

In the present missionary age we should deem 
it a Christian privilege, as well as a rich source 
of joy, comfort and encouragement to remember 
those good teachers who brought the gospel of 
Christ to our forefathers. Let us all humbly 

Life Pictures. 2. 



10 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

thank God that he sent his servants to them, when 
they dwelt in the darkness of gross idolatry and 
in the shadow of death. It is then certainly 
also right and proper for us to honor the 
memory of Ansgar, who was the first Christian 
missionary to Sweden, and who has been rightly 
called 'The apostle of the North," His true fear 
of God and self-sacrificing love of Him and of his 
fellow men, as well as his patience, faith, hope 
and endurance ought to inspire us to be more 
faithful and persevering in the service of our 
Lord and Saviour. 

Ansgar, or Ansgarius, was born in Picardie, a 
province of France, in 801, and was probably 
of Frankish descent. His mother, a pious lady, 
died when he was five years old, and he was then 
placed by his father in the cloister of Corbie, 
founded in 657, on the river Somme, not very far 
from Amiens in Picardie. The noble Adalhard, 
a cousin of the illustrious Emperor Charlemagne, 
was then its abbot, and Ansgar remained until 823 
at its renowned convent school, dedicated to St. 
Peter. During the period extending from Char- 
lemagne to the death of King Charles the Bald, 
768 — 877, this school gained a very high repu- 
tation for learning and Christian culture, and was 
doubtless instrumental in preparing Ansgar for 
his life work. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 11 

The religious spirit of Ansgar was very early 
molded for his future vocation by certain 
dreams, occasioned partly through his peculiar 
bent of mind and partly by his environment. One 
night during his first years in the cloister he 
dreamed that he himself was in a dismal marsh, 
but nearby lay a pleasant plain, where he saw ap- 
proaching him a company of holy women clad in 
white and among them his own mother. One of 
them, whom he took for the Virgin Mary, asked 
him: "My son, would you like to come to your 
mother?" When he had replied affirmatively to 
that question, the Virgin Mary said to him: "If 
you wish to be one of our company, you must not 
indulge in vanities and childish pranks, for we will 
not tolerate vanity and idleness, and whosoever 
finds pleasure in such things cannot be in our com- 
pany." So deep was the impression of this dream 
on Ansgar's mind that he withdrew from child- 
ish folly, and at the age of twelve years became 
an ascetic of the order of St. Augustine. But in 
spite of his prayers, reading and singing, his 
ascetic zeal languished, and he found no peace 
for his troubled soul. This depression reached 
its depth in 814, when he was informed of the 
death of Charlemagne, whom he had seen shortly 
before in imperial power and glory. 

But the night before the following Pentecost 



12 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

came the turning point in young Ansgar's life. 
That night he dreamed that he died and was con- 
ducted by St. John and St. Peter first through 
purgatory and afterwards into the glory of the 
heavenly paradise. There he saw a great multi- 
tude of saints and also the twenty-four elders sit- 
ting on their thrones, and he heard them all with 
unspeakable words praising and adoring God. 
He saw the glory of the Lord, and he heard a 
heavenly voice saying to him : "Go, and come back 
again to me!" Ansgar awoke from the dream, 
trusting in the grace of God, willing to serve him, 
and hoping to receive a martyr's crown. His 
faith and love of God were further strengthened 
by another dream he had two years afterwards. 
He then saw the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory 
and fell down at His feet. On His gentle call 
Ansgar arose and confessed those sins he remem- 
bered, and the Saviour said to him: "Be not 
afraid, it is I who blot out thy transgressions." 
From that time Ansgar believed the forgiveness 
of all his sins for Christ's sake and praised God 
for his rich and unmerited grace to great sin- 
ners. 

Ansgar became a teacher at the convent school. 
In 823 together with some other monks he was 
transferred from Corbie to Corvey in Westpha- 
lian Saxony. This branch cloister had, in the 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 13 

previous year, been erected in a beautiful valley 
near the river Weser, for mission work among 
the heathen Saxons. These Saxons had been de- 
ported thither by Emperor Charlemagne during 
the cruel wars by which he tried to convert them 
to Christianity as well as conquer their native 
land. At Corvey, Ansgar was the principal teach- 
er and was at the same time preacher in the con- 
vent church. Here he came in contact with 
the worshipers of Odin, or Wodan, and thus 
became acquainted with the religion of the Teu- 
tons and the Northmen. 

In the meantime a Danish king, Harold, was 
driven from his country, and came, in 826, to 
Ingelheim, an imperial residence near Mainz, to 
secure help from Emperor Louis the Pious. This 
was promised Harold on condition that he would 
embrace the Christian religion. He and his 
queen and followers were thus baptized at Mainz ; 
but when the question arose, who would go with 
these fierce warriors to confirm them in the faith, 
nobody about the court was willing to under- 
take such a mission. Valo, the new abbot of Cor- 
bie and brother of Adalhag, however, declared 
immediately that none was so well fitted for such 
an important mission as Ansgar, one of his trust- 
ed monks. 

Ansgar was called and replied: "I am ready 



14 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCtt HISTORY 

for anything in the service of God." His zeal 
induced Autbert, a fellow monk, to volunteer to 
go with him to the pagan country, and so they 
went with Harold to Cologne, where the company 
was given a splendid boat by Archbishop Hade- 
bold, who was very much interested in this new 
missionary enterprise. When they had reached 
Denmark, Ansgar began his mission work in 
Schleswig and at Hadeby then opened a school 
with some twelve boys, of whom several had been 
slaves, together with some Christian prisoners of 
war whom he had ransomed. Many pagans were 
converted and received holy baptism, but King 
Harold was again driven out of Denmark, and 
Autbert was compelled, on account of illness, to 
retire to Corvey, where he died in 827. 

From Sweden a remarkable embassy came the 
same year to Emperor Louis the Pious at a diet 
at Worms, the same city where nearly 700 years 
afterwards Dr. Martin Luther proclaimed the 
true Christian gospel before the emperor and the 
princes. The Swedish ambassadors asked also, 
perhaps privately, for Christian missionaries, be- 
cause there was in that far off country a longing 
for the religion of the "White Christ." To this 
request the pious emperor listened with joy and 
consulted with Valo, who again pointed to Ans- 
gar as the most suitable missionary to the Swedes 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 15 

as well as to the Danes. Having been summoned, 
Ansgar entered prayerfully on the new missionary 
work among these fierce warriors, about whom 
the Christian people in southern Europe sang 
in the litany: "From the fury of the Northmen, 
Lord, deliver us !" The abbot gave him Witmar, 
a venerable brother of the cloister, as his com- 
panion, while the monk Gislemar was sent with 
them to Denmark. Gislemar, a man tried in 
faith and good works, had a burning zeal for God. 
On the voyage from Denmark to Sweden pi- 
rates, "vikings/' attacked their ship and deprived 
the missionaries of all their property, consisting 
mainly of forty books for worship and some pres- 
ents from the emperor to the Swedes. The Chris- 
tian missionaries were put on shore utterly desti- 
tute, but Ansgar would not return, as he was con- 
fident that his mission was in the hands of God 
and would, in spite of all obstacles, receive His 
blessings, who had sent him to preach the gospel. 
Ansgar and Witmar traveled a good part of their 
remaining long journey on foot through deep for- 
ests, and at last, in the spring of 830, they came 
to Birka, an important commercial town situated 
on Bjorkon, an island in Lake Malaren. Here 
they were well received by king Bjorn, who, hav- 
ing taken counsel of his court, granted Ansgar 
by royal decree the right to preach. This was 



16 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

very welcome to the many Christian captives of 
war at Birka who were longing to hear the gospel 
and to receive the holy sacraments. Several na- 
tives were also converted and baptized, among 
whom was Hergeir, the governor of the town and 
the most trusted friend of the king. Hergeir 
received baptism, built on his own property the 
first church in Sweden, and "became strong in the 
Christian faith." As one of the first converts 
may also be mentioned Frideborg, a wealthy wid- 
ow, who proved a true Dorcas among the first 
Swedish Christians. After diligent and success- 
ful labor during a year and a half, the missiona- 
ries returned from Birka to the emperor, bringing 
with them greetings in runic characters from 
King Bjorn. 

The emperor rejoiced at their great success and 
immediately instituted an archbishopric of the 
North at Hamburg. As archbishop of this new 
church province, the largest in the Roman church, 
Ansgar was solemnly ordained by Drogo, the 
bishop of Metz, assisted by three archbishops and 
other prelates. To the Hamburg cathedral the 
emperor donated an imperial estate called Tur- 
holt, and on Ansgar's visit to Rome Pope Gregory 
IV. confirmed him in his office as archbishop by 
giving him the pallium and appointing him to- 
gether with Ebo, the archbishop of Rhimes, as 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 17 

apostolic vicar and legate to Sweden and Den- 
mark. 

For the advancement of the mission in Den- 
mark Ansgar made several visits to that country, 
and as his bishop and vicar in Sweden he ordained 
Gauzbert, a relative of Ebo. Gauzbert, as bishop 
called Simon, at first met a favorable reception 
from the Swedes and induced them to build a 
church, but the heathen populace soon grew furi- 
ous. In 845 Gauzbert was driven from the coun- 
try and his nephew Nitard killed. The latter thus 
became the first Christian martyr of Sweden. The 
little Christian church at Birka remained for 
seven years without a pastor, but Hergeir did 
the work of an evangelist, supported for some 
time by a hermit by the name of Ardgar, sent 
by Ansgar. Having comforted both Hergeir and 
Frideborg on their death beds, this missionary 
left Sweden. 

During this time Ansgar educated some Danish 
young men for the holy ministry, but he had 
to suffer many adversities in Hamburg. The city 
was ravaged and burned by piratical vikings. 
The church built by Charlemagne, the cloister 
built by Ansgar, and a library donated by Louis 
the Pious, all vanished in the flames. Turholt, 
the archiepiscopal country estate, was appropri- 
ated by King Charles the Bald, and Ansgar, 



18 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

destitute of all things save his childlike trust in 
God, exclaimed with Job: "The Lord gave, and 
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name 
of the Lord." After the death of the bishop of 
Bremen, King Louis of Germany came to the aid 
of Ansgar by making him also bishop of that dio- 
cese. Against this act the archbishop of Cologne 
protested, because Bremen had belonged to his 
territory; but in 864 the noble Pope Nicolaus I. 
authorized the union of the dioceses of Hamburg 
and Bremen and appointed its archbishop apostol- 
ic legate to the North. 

Ansgar, having tried in vain to persuade Gauz- 
bert to return to Birka, in 853 undertook his 
second missionary journey to our old fatherland. 
The German king Louis favored his undertaking 
and the Danish king Erik, or Horek, whom Ansgar 
first visited and whose confidence and good will 
he had already gained, sent one of his own men 
with him to Olof, who at that time was king at 
Birka. King Erik also sent with them a letter to 
Olof, testifying that "he had never known so 
good a man, or found such fidelity in any, as in 
Ansgar." After a voyage of twenty days they 
arrived at Birka and met the few remaining 
Christians. King Olof and his men were just then 
sacrificing to a former King Erik, whom they had 
elevated to a place among their gods; for in the 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 19 

Norse religion not only powers of nature, but also 
progenitors of the tribe were worshiped as gods. 
Under such adverse circumstances many dis- 
couraged Ansgar from proclaiming publicly the 
gospel of the cross, but being strong in faith and 
prayer, he was of good cheer and trusted in the 
promises of God. On the advice of his friends 
Ansgar invited King Olof to be his guest, made 
him presents and showed him his credentials from 
the king of Denmark. King Olof gave him per- 
mission to preach, stating, however, that the case 
had to be brought before the Ting, which was a 
general assembly of all the freeborn men, to be 
approved by them. At this assembly the sacred 
ballot first decided in favor of free preaching, but 
at this the warriors murmured, opposing strongly 
any toleration of the new religion. A venerable 
old man arose at last, telling them what a mighty 
God the Christians' God was and how he had 
proven himself a helper to those who invoked him 
in perils at sea, and declared that not a few, in 
their desires to be baptized, had journeyed even 
to far off Dorstadt (a town near the present 
Utrecht in Holland). In closing, he gave his 
countrymen this admonition: "Take heed, good 
people, and listen to my counsel. Do not throw 
away this opportunity. If perchance we lose the 
favor of our own gods, then it is a good thing to 



20 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

have the grace of this God, who always and in all 
circumstances can and will help all who call on 
him." The result was that the Christians were 
permitted to preach, and this decision was con- 
firmed at a second general assembly of the Swe- 
dish warriors and free men. 

By the gracious help of God, Ansgar now es- 
tablished the mission work in Birka. Several 
Swedes were baptized and a new church was built. 
After some time Ansgar returned to Bremen, 
having entrusted the care of the Christians at 
Birka to his companion, the preacher Eribert, a 
nephew of Gauzbert. Ansgar himself, however, 
during all his life took a heartfelt interest in the 
Scandinavian mission fields. 

While in the convent school at Corbie Ansgar 
had found true peace in Christ Jesus, and he 
proved his faith by his works. True, Ansgar's 
piety had a mediaeval coloring. He wore coarse 
sackcloth next to the body, and nearly half his 
life was a fast-day, but his whole life was a 
prayer without ceasing and a devoted service of 
God and his fellow men. It is said of Ansgar that 
"he sang psalms and tied nets," and thus, like the 
apostle Paul, he burdened not his converts. He 
set aside the largest part of his income for the 
poor, erecting for them a hospital in Bremen. 
Another chief care of his was to redeem captives 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 21 

and slaves. Thus he once freed a widow's son, 
who was sold in Sweden, and brought him back 
to the arms of his mother. 

Ansgar wrote some pastoral letters, which, how- 
ever, are all lost, and a collection of short, edifying 
prayers, called Pigmenta, to Psalms of David. 

As specimens we will quote those applying to 
Psalms I and II. Ps. I : "Make us, dear Lord, to be 
as a rich fruit tree before Thy face, watered by 
Thy rain, that we may become worthy of pleasing 
Thee by the abundance of good fruit." Ps. II: 
'Break, Lord, the bonds of our sins, that we as 
Thy servants may have the desire to serve Thee in 
fear and reverence." He also wrote a biography 
of Willehad, the first bishop of Bremen, which 
has the following preface : "When Christians 
narrate praiseworthy acts of the saints, it is 
done thereby to preach Christ, to glorify Christ; 
because it is by His power that they have become 
conquerors, having by His grace persevered in 
good conduct. It is by the grace of God — accord- 
ing to the words of the Apostle — that the saints 
are what they are." 

When Ansgar grew old, his mind was some- 
times troubled by the fact that his fond hopes 
of martyrdom were not fulfilled, but he overcame 
at last this sentiment. Feeling that the day of 
his departure had come, he gave a feast to his 



22 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

clergy and to the poor, ordering public preaching 
and divine service. He himself exhorted his 
clergy to faithful care of the souls and especially 
to mission work among the poor heathen. Accord- 
ing to his wish the clergy chanted the Ambrosian 
hymn "Te Deum" and the Athanasian Creed. 
The next morning he took the holy sacrament, 
prayed to God and repeated especially the follow- 
ing Scripture passages : "According to Thy mercy 
remember Thou me for Thy goodness' sake, 
Lord" (Ps. 25: 7). "God be merciful to me, a 
sinner" (Luke 18: 13). "Into Thine hand I com- 
mit my spirit, Thou hast redeemed me, Lord, 
God of truth" (Ps. 31:5). And thus Ansgar fell 
asleep in the peace of Jesus Christ on the third 
day of February, 865. He was buried in St. Peter's 
church in Bremen and soon afterwards canonized 
as a saint. Rimbert, Ansgar's disciple and suc- 
cessor as archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, shortly 
after his death wrote a biography of this humble 
and faithful servant of God, "the apostle of the 
North." 

This Rimbert took a hearty interest in Ans- 
gar's missionary work and visited both Sweden 
and Denmark. So did also another archbishop 
of Bremen, Unne, who died at Birka in 936, and 
his successor, Adaldag, himself did missionary 
work in Denmark and sent to Sweden a Dane 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 23 

named Odinkar, who with some success carried 
on mission work there. From England came a 
missionary, Sigfrid, by the Norwegians called 
Sigurd, who, in 1008, baptized Olof Skotkonung, 
the first Christian king in Sweden, at the well 
of Husaby, in Vastergotland. Sigfrid preached in 
Smaland on such important gospel texts as John 
3: 5; 3: 16; Luke 15: 7, and built a church at 
Ostrabo, now Vexio, where he died in 1030. 

From this time Christianity was rapidly spread 
over the whole of Sweden by the zealous work 
mostly of Anglo-Saxon missionaries, although St. 
Stephen, the apostle of Helsingland and Norrland, 
was sent from Bremen by Archbishop Adalbert. 
Most prominent among the Anglo-Saxon mission- 
aries were Bernard (fl019), "the apostle of 
Skane" (Lund); Abbot David (fl082), who 
preached the gospel in Vastmanland (Vasteras) ; 
and Eskil, in Sodermanland (Eskilstuna). EskiPs 
work there was continued by Botvid, a native 
Swedish missionary baptized in England, who 
died in 1120. The tree last-named missionaries 
became martyrs to the Christian faith. 

King Inge the Elder enjoined all his subjects to 
be christened, and ordered the heathen sacrifices 
abolished. At the Ting he was subsequently 
pelted with stones and obliged to abdicate, and 
his brother-in-law, Blot-Sven, or Sven the Sacri- 



24 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

ficer, was elected to succeed him. But later, in 
1082, by Inge's victory over his heathen rival, 
the pagan power was broken in Upper Sweden, 
and the Christian religion became at last fully 
established in Sweden during the reign of St. 
Erik, 1150—1160. 

To our heathen forefathers the gospel of Christ 
was thus brought first by Ansgar and German 
missionaries, but after the Danish conquest of 
England (and with greater visible progress) by 
English missionaries, just as enterprising Anglo- 
Saxon missionaries had previously come with the 
gospel message to Germany. In His rich grace 
and mercy, God rewarded this English missionary 
activity by causing the Evangelical Lutheran doc- 
trine to be preached in England during the Refor- 
mation century. And it seems likely to be the aim 
of our almighty and merciful Lord God that the 
Lutheran Church shall now bring its whole and 
unfalsified gospel truth to the Protestant Re- 
formed Churches in America and thence to all 
other nations. 

Merciful Lord God, we praise and thank Thee, 
that Thou didst send Ansgar and other faithful 
missionaries with the gospel of Christ to our 
forefathers! And we humbly ask Thee, for our 
dear Saviour's sake, to make us all Thy true ser- 
vants, that we may keep Thy holy Word and 




CATHEDRAL OF LUND. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 25 

Sacraments, and bring these blessed means of 
grace to our fellow men both at home and in the 
dark heathen lands. Amen. 




Life Pictures. 3, 



II. St. Erik and St. Birgitta. 




T. ERIK reigned over the people of Svea- 
land from 1150 to his death in 1160 
and over the whole of Sweden during 
the last two years of his life. Ac- 
cording to the ideals of the Catholic Church 
in the North he was the noblest and most pious 
of Swedish kings during the Middle Ages. In all 
Sweden his name was universally honored and 
cherished because of his religious life, his laws, 
his crusade in Finland, and his violent death. As 
a king he was a law-giver and a churchman, and 
afterwards he became the patron saint of the 
Swedish people, though without official papal 
canonization. 

Personally King Erik lived a virtuous and al- 
most ascetic life, and in all respects he was the 
best exemplar for his still uncultured people. As 
a true father of his people he traveled about in 
the country and saw to it that law and justice 
were maintained, and that peace and mutual for- 
bearance prevailed among all his subjects. He 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 27 

raised the respect for woman and marriage by en- 
acting a law that gave legal rights in property 
to married women. Thus up to the time of Gus- 
tavus Adolphus the following form was used 
by the father at the betrothal of his daughter: 
"I give thee this my daughter to be an honor 
and helpmate to thee and to have half thy bed, thy 
doors and keys, and every third penny in thy 
goods movable and immovable, and all the 
rights which Upper Sweden has from St. Erik, 
and which St. Erik gave. In the name of the 
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. 
Amen." 

The papal legate Nicolaus of Alba, afterwards 
Pope Hadrian IV., came to Sweden to organize 
a Swedish Church province with its own arch- 
bishop, and held a council at Linkoping in 1152, 
the first Church council in Sweden. But the 
prelates from the northern parts of the country 
could not agree with those of the southern, either 
on a candidate or on the archiepiscopal residence, 
and so there was no installation in such office. 
The Eastgothic king Sverker was present at the 
council, and the legate induced him and the people 
to pay a yearly tribute to Rome, the so-called St. 
Peter's pence, as other European people did. It 
is, however, quite possible, that this was done with 
the understanding that the Swedish clergy should 



28 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

be exempted from the papal church law forbid- 
ding all priests to marry. 

Zealous for the Christian faith and the salva- 
tion of the pagans, King Erik undertook to con- 
vert the heathen Finns who used to plunder the 
Swedish coasts. At first he offered them holy 
baptism and peace. When they spurned his 
friendly proposal he began, in 1158, a crusade 
at the head of a band of free and devoted men. 
He landed with his fleet at the mouth of the Aura 
river, where the city of Abo is now situated, and 
there in a bloody combat the Finns were subdued. 
When the king saw the many dead lying on the 
battlefield he wept bitterly. To one of the war- 
riors, who expressed sursprise over the king's 
grief, he said : "I am glad and I praise God for 
the victory, but I am sorry for the loss of so many 
souls, who could have gone to heaven, if they 
had accepted the Christian faith." King Erik 
was a true Christian but a child of his age. Many 
Finns were afterwards baptized, some of their 
own free will, others by compulsion. Henry, 
bishop of Uppsala, though born in England, ac- 
companied the crusaders, and to him the king 
gave a commission to bring about conversion of 
the Finns by instruction and baptism. The bishop 
labored with apparent success, until he fell a mar- 
tyr at the hands of the Finn Lalli. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 29 

King Erik returned to Uppsala, and there on 
the 18th of May, 1160, while he attended mass in 
the Holy Trinity Church, one of his warriors came 
with the sudden news that a Danish prince, Mag- 
nus Henrikson, a descendant of King Inge the 
Elder, had entered the town and was approaching 
the temple. The pious king, unwilling to inter- 
rupt the divine service, answered the warrior: 
"Leave me in peace until the mass is ended, and 
whatever may happen afterwards, I hope to God 
that I may elsewhere hear a still more glorious 
divine service." With his little flock King Erik 
was overcome outside the church, all his warriors 
fell, and he himself was beheaded by his treach- 
erous enemy. During the Middle Ages this day 
was celebrated yearly in Sweden, and the banner 
he carried in the crusade against the Finns was 
considered a sacred object, bringing victory and 
good fortune to all who carried it. The most 
solemn oaths, by king or peasant, were sworn 
11 in the name of God and St. Erik, the king." 



St. Birgitta is the most universally known and 
honored of Swedish women. St. Ansgar, St. Erik 
and St. Birgitta are the three noblest representa- 
tives of the Roman Catholic Church in the history 
of Sweden. Her father, Birger Person, a kinsman 
of an archbishop of Uppsala and several other 



30 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

bishops, had made a pilgrimage to St. James of 
Compostella in Spain and was lawman (superior 
judge) at Finstad, Uppland, where Birgitta was 
born 1303. From him Birgitta seems to have in- 
herited her love for pilgrimages and pious insti- 
tutions, as well as for law and fearless, impartial 
judgments. 

After her mother's death, in 1314, Birgitta was 
left in the care of her aunt Ingrid at Aspnas. 
Here Birgitta listened to legends and religious 
discussions, and even as a child she began to 
have, or imagined that she had, spiritual visions. 
Thus on one occasion she dreamt that a crown 
was pressed on her head, and on another occasion 
that she beheld the Saviour on the cross and heard 
Him speaking to her. When Birgitta was about 
thirteen years old, she was married to Ulf Gud- 
marson, then eighteen years old, who afterwards 
became lawman and resided at the beautiful Ulf- 
asa. Four sons and four daughters were born 
and educated in that home. On their estate Ulf 
and Birgitta erected a house for the sick and the 
poor, where she was very often seen serving them 
herself and following our Saviour's example by 
washing their feet. Besides Birgitta occupied 
herself very much with reading "Lives of Holy 
Men," and above all the Bible, which, at least in 
part, she caused to be translated into Swedish, 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 31 

probably by her father confessor, Master Mathias. 
Birgitta's pious life had such an influence on 
her husband, lawman Ulf , that he withdrew more 
and more from the worldly life with its vanity and 
unrest, and at last, together with his wife and a 
considerable company, undertook a pilgrimage 
to St. James of Compostella, a place where the 
apostle James the Elder was believed to have 
been buried. On their return home lawman Ulf 
contracted a serious disease at Arras, a town in 
Northern France ; but he recovered and the party 
of pilgrims returned, safe and sound, to the Fa- 
therland. Ulf and Birgitta then resolved to devote 
their remaining days solely to meditation and en- 
tered the monastery of Alvastra. Here Ulf Gud- 
marson died in 1344. 

Remaining at Alvastra for several years after 
her husband's death, Birgitta's vague dreams 
there began to develop into more distinct revela- 
tions. Eyewitnesses have reported concerning 
them, that she suddenly fell into ecstasy and lost 
consciousness, whereupon she told of the glorious 
things she had seen or heard, mostly in conversa- 
tion with Christ, the Holy Virgin, or the saints. 
She claimed that this God-given sleep was not a 
bodily but a spiritual rest. When the ecstasy had 
passed, Birgitta felt exhausted but remembered 
her visions, and she wrote them down or recited 



32 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

them to her confessors, who turned them into 
Latin. From this Latin text, edited several times, 
the convent people of Vadstena made a Swedish 
translation, which has lately been published. 

Birgitta was the greatest poetical genius in Swe- 
den during the Middle Ages. In the presentation 
of her revelations she has a pleasing style, often 
aglow with spiritual experience and apt illustra- 
tions from nature. As evidence the following ex- 
tracts, taken from Fr. Hammerich's interesting 
book, "Den hellige Birgitta og Kirken i Norden," 
may suffice here. "There are tears which are 
like the snow or hail, when man weeps after his 
God, but not from love and longing, but with an 
icy heart, full of fear of hell, and would be con- 
tent, be it in heaven or on earth, to find a little 
place where he could be rid of the torment and 
satisfy for ever his desires. On the contrary, 
those tears which draw the soul to heaven, and 
heaven to the soul, are like the dew which falls on 
the roseleaf . When man bethinks himself of the 
love of the Lord and of His cruel and bitter pas- 
sion, then the eye is filled with tears, which sur- 
round the soul as the dewdrops lie around the 
flower, which refresh the soul and make it fruit- 
ful and bring God the Lord into it." "The rose 
has a sweet scent, is lovely to look upon and soft 
to touch, and yet it grows among thorns. So the 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 33 

good among the bad; the one cannot be without 
the other. Bear thou also with the enemies of 
Christ, so long as He bears with them." 

Birgitta's mysticism, and how she imagined her 
mysterious union with Christ, may be understood 
from this utterance: "Christ says: Heaven and 
earth cannot comprehend Me ; but still I will dwell 
in your heart, that little piece of flesh. Whom 
then should you fear? What else do you need, if 
you carry the only almighty God? But you must 
desist from all the wishes and the lusts of the 
world, and be absorbed by eternal joy. This is the 
bed in which you can rest. You must confide in 
me, for joy is to remain eternally in me. And the 
light, which will enlighten the chamber of the 
heart, is the faith that I can do all things." 

As a Roman Catholic, Birgitta lays much stress 
upon meritorious work by man, and she considers 
salvation as the result of co-operation between di- 
vine grace and the human will. This is clearly 
seen in her veneration for saints and relics, her 
monastic discipline, and her faith in pilgrimages 
as meritorious before God. She called herself "the 
Bride of Christ," and there is in her character a 
strange mixture of religious humility and am- 
bitious pride, sustained by the veneration of which 
she was the object. Birgitta was not a morning 
star foreboding the Evangelical Church reforma- 



34 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

tion. She was rather like the bewitching midsum- 
mer night in the North. 

Birgitta imagined herself to have received this 
command from Christ, "Go to Rome: for there 
the streets are paved with everlasting gold; that 
is, the blood of the martyrs and saints. There, 
through the merits of saints and the absolution 
of the pope, lies the shortest way to heaven. In 
Rome thou shalt remain until thou hast seen the 
pope and the emporer." She thus wished to at- 
tend the jubilee festivals of 1350 in Rome to enjoy 
its promised rich indulgences, and at the same 
time she thought herself called by God to urge 
Pope Clement VI. to return to Rome, "the sacred 
capital of Christendom/' from his residence in 
Avignon, France. Together with Petrus Olai, 
prior of Alvastra, and her new confessor, Petrus 
Olai of Skenninge, she started, in 1349, on her 
difficult pilgrimage through Germany, then nearly 
devastated by the terrible "Black death," and 
reached Rome, where she met no pope, but saw 
only party strife, disturbances and ruined church- 
es. Together with her son Birger and her daugh- 
ter Catherine, both of whom arrived the following 
year, she lived in a house which afterwards be- 
came a priory of the Birgittine order and is still 
to be seen near the river Tiber. 

For the papal office Birgitta had the highest 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 35 

reverence, but the licentious Pope Clement VI. of 
Avignon she called "Lucifer on the Holy Chair," 
and in vain she sought to persuade his successor, 
Pope Innocent VI., to return from the "Babylonian 
captivity." Not until 1367 did she have the joy 
of hearing Pope Urban V. sing the mass in Rome 
and of paying him reverence. Birgitta had, how- 
ever, a purpose of her own in meeting the pope. 
She wanted his sanction for a new religious order 
to be established by her, the Order of the Holy 
Saviour. 

While still in the monastery of Alvastra, Bir- 
gitta had, according to a supposed divine revela- 
tion, drawn up a constitution for a convent prin- 
cipally for women, and King Magnus Erikson and 
his spouse had bequeathed large gifts, including 
the estate of Vadstena, situated at the east shore 
of Lake Vettern, as the site of a double cloister 
and for its support. In this cloister there were 
to be thirteen priests as representatives of the 
twelve apostles and St. Paul, four deacons, eight 
lay brothers, all under the supervision of a prior ; 
and sixty nuns, these to be subject to an abbess, 
with the diocesan bishop as general overseer. Men 
and women were to dwell in separate houses and 
were not allowed to meet except in the church, 
where they were to worship together, but screened 
from each other's sight. After a year's proba- 



36 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

tion the nuns were admitted with a marriage 
ring and a crown, but carried out of church upon 
a bier. As a perpetual reminder of death there 
was a coffin in the church, and in the cloister 
an open grave, around which the sisters daily 
sang David's 130th psalm. The object of the 
new order was edification, promotion of learning, 
transcription of books, home industry, and work 
for procuring alms for the poor. Birgitta loved 
her fatherland, prayed for it and heard the voice 
of Christ saying : "This is the mercy that is prom- 
ised to the kingdom of Sweden, that its inhabit- 
ants shall hear the Word of God." 

In 1368 the pope granted several privileges to 
Birgitta, and in 1370 sanctioned the statutes of 
her order. At Vadstena, in 1384, two buildings 
were consecrated, one for the monks, the other 
for the nuns. The Swedish aristocracy related 
to Birgitta favored the cloister and her order, 
and for political reasons King Albrecht decreed 
that every person in Sweden should annually pay 
a penny to the cloister at Vadstena. The new 
order, generally known as the Birgittine Order, 
as well as the Vadstena cloister, were undoubtedly 
of some benefit to the mediaeval Swedish Church, 
as it was enjoined in the convent rules of Birgitta 
that on every Sunday and holiday the priests 
should preach in the vernacular to the people and 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 37 

explain the gospel for the day. But in the course 
of time the moral condition of the cloister deteri- 
orated, and hardly twenty years after the formal 
dedication of the convent Abbess Ingegerd had to 
be deposed for very shameful conduct. The Vad- 
stena cloister was, however, not closed till 1595, 
when it was declared to be a home of seduction 
and conspiracy. 

Against the earnest entreaty of Birgitta, Pope 
Urban V. deserted Rome for Avignon in 1370 and 
died ten weeks afterwards, as she had predicted. 
Her reputation as a prophetess was thereby great- 
ly increased. In 1372 she undertook a pilgrimage 
to Palestine, where she had the joy of visiting 
Bethlehem and Jerusalem and of seeing her son 
Birger, who was in her company, made a Knight 
of the Holy Sepulchre. In a vision she saw Christ 
on the cross, and His mother, sorrowful and trem- 
bling, at the foot of the cross. Exhausted from 
the long, weary voyage, Birgitta came back to 
Rome and there died on July 23, 1373. The fol- 
lowing year the remains were taken to Sweden by 
her daughter Catherine and were deposited first 
in the Linkoping cathedral and afterwards in the 
cloister of Vadstena. Miracles w T ere reported to 
have taken place at her grave, and her relatives, 
especially her daughter, and other persons of in- 
fluence in the country, now became zealous for 






38 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

the canonization of Birgitta. Their efforts were 
successful, and in 1391 Pope Boniface IX. with 
great and costly festivities inscribed her name in 
the calendar of the Roman Catholic saints. A 
second canonization of Birgitta was solemnly per- 
formed by Pope John XIIL, which act was con- 
firmed by the Council of Constance in 1415. 




III. Archbishops of Lund and of Uppsala. 




HE Danish king Sven Forkbeard (985 
— 1014) conquered England and was 
there converted to Christianity, after 
having been a bitter persecutor of the 
Christians. The next Danish king, Canute the 
Great, returned in 1019 from England to Den- 
mark, bringing with him several English bishops, 
among whom Bernard went to Skane (Scania), 
then a Danish province. Adam of Bremen (f 1076) , 
whose history of the Hamburg-Bremen archbish- 
opric is the principal source of our knowledge of 
the Scandinavian Church history of that time, 
says concerning these bishops: "We might well 
say that our men have labored, and that the Anglo- 
Saxons have entered into their labors." 

By these missionary efforts Christianity had 
made such progress in Skane that two bishop- 
rics could be established there in 1048, with two 
bishops, the Anglo-Saxon Henry, and Egino, or- 
dained in Bremen. Adam says of the latter : "He 
was a wise man, well versed in studies, pure in 



40 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

his manner of life, and burning with zeal to con- 
vert the heathen." As such Adam mentions "the 
barbarian inhabitants of Blekinge," whom the 
preaching of Egino moved to destroy their idols, 
to be baptized, and to build churches. After the 
untimely death of Henry, the two bishoprics 
were joined, and Egino continued as bishop 
in Lund until his death in 1072. Adam, praising 
Skane for its many armed men and abundance 
of grain and merchandise, says that it had at the 
death of Egino three hundred churches and was 
the finest province of Denmark. The present 
Swedish province of that name has about four 
hundred churches. 

Lund probably received its name from the word 
lund, which means grove. It had been a chief 
place of the Odin cult, and an old Danish chron- 
icle says: "Lund and Skanor were in the finest 
bloom, when Christ let himself be born." In this 
old inland town, surrounded by fertile plains, 
there soon arose a magnificent cathedral, the St. 
Laurence church, which is still in use and stands 
as a venerable monument of the earliest Chris- 
tian architecture in Scandinavia. The walls of 
this church were erected during the reign of the 
Danish king St. Canute, who at its first dedica- 
tion, in 1085, promised to the cathedral real estate 
in Skane and Seeland as "bridal presents," "that 




GUSTAVUS VASA. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 41 

it may for all time be a bride to that Lamb which 
taketh away the sins of the world." 

Asger, who became bishop of Lund in 1089, was 
created archbishop of Denmank, Sweden and 
Norway in 1103, by Pope Paschalis II. Among 
the bishops consecrated by him in the St. Laurence 
church are to be mentioned Erik Gnupson, who in 
1120 went to Vinland (supposed to have been Mas- 
sachusetts), and Arnold, who in 1124 went to 
Gardar, in Greenland. At the death of Asger his 
nephew Eskil became archbishop of Lund, al- 
though as bishop of Roeskilde he had defended the 
rights of the people against the Danish kings. 
King Erik Lamb, however, would not go to 
war with the Scanians, who would not allow a 
member of any other family to become archbishop. 
Eric Lamb and Eskil were from that time good 
friends. The king took up his residence in Lund, 
and a Danish chronicle says: "He improved that 
city so much, that no other in all Denmark was 
mightier during his reign." 

Archbishop Eskil held a great provincial synod 
in 1145, when the cathedral, built in pure Roman- 
esque style, received its final dedication and was 
consecrated "to Mary, the eternal virgin, and to 
St. Laurence, the glorious martyr." Asger had 
already dedicated the crypt of that great cathe- 
dral "to St. John the Baptist and to the glory of 

Life Pictures. 4. 



42 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

all patriarchs and prophets." Two princes, after- 
wards successive kings of Denmark, two Danish 
and two Swedish bishops, many abbots, deans, 
priests, monks, and a great multitude of people 
from town and country were present at the dedi- 
cation of the cathedral. On this solemn occasion 
the archbishop donated several estates to the 
St. Laurence church, and several rich gifts were 
offered on its high altar, which was equipped 
with alleged relics, such as, a fragment of the 
cross of Christ, hairs and a piece of the gown of 
the Holy Virgin, part of the beard of St. Peter and 
the blood of St. Paul, etc. In this cathedral many 
of the kings of Denmark were crowned, and here 
some of them were menaced with the ban ; hither 
came the legates of the pope, the bishops of the 
North, and pious pilgrims from near and far. 
Even the proud queen Margaret, the regent of the 
three Scandinavian realms, declared after a dis- 
pute with the archbishop of Lund that she "had 
subjected herself to St. Laurence and would re- 
main his handmaid." 

In 1162 Eskil held another synod, which enact- 
ed the first church law of the North. This law, 
"promulgated by the archbishop at the public 
meeting of the people and on petition of all the 
Scanians, shall judge between bishop and people, 
should any dispute arise between them." How 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 43 

great the power of the laymen was, and to what 
extent this law was in accordance with national 
custom, may be understood from the following 
extract: "If a church is vacant, the parishioners, 
with the consent of the bishop, shall elect a 
priest." Eskil was a true friend of the common 
people, a patron of sciences, and a promoter of 
church institutions, and as such he founded sev- 
eral monasteries: Warnhem in Vastergotland, 
Alvastra in ostergotland, Nydala in Smaland, and 
in Lund the Convent of all Saints and the Nunnery 
of St. Peter. He also connected with the cathe- 
dral a convent school and increased its revenues, 
"that all should have access to the same, and in 
memory of the bishop and for the repose of his 
soul." 

The kings of Denmark were in the meantime 
lowering themselves nearly to be the vassals of 
the German emperor; but Archbishop Eskil, with 
resolute courage, opposed such treason against the 
independence of the fatherland. He was there- 
fore, on his return from Rome in 1154, taken 
prisoner by Emperor Frederic Barbarossa, who 
wanted to bring him under subjection to Bremen 
and to the emperor's schismatic pope. Eskil wrote 
from the prison to his priests : "I value the honor 
of the kingdom of Denmark and the independence 
of the Danish Church so highly that I would 



44 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

rather die for her than rule over her. Therefore 
I address myself to you, my lord and friends, my 
brethren and my priests, asking your intercession, 
your care and your sympathy. I ask that with 
nothing but your prayers you seek to redeem me 
in my innocence; but I pray and urge, that none 
of you may dare to think of any other ransom. 
I am ransomed by the blood of Christ, and I want 
no other redemption." Pope Hadrian IV., who 
had visited Eskil in Lund, compelled the emperor 
to release Eskil and to be reconciled to him. 

Norway received its own archbishop in 1152, 
and in the following year the pope appointed Eskil 
primate of the Scandinavian churches and em- 
powered him to present the pallium to such person 
as the Swedes should elect as their own arch- 
bishop. In 1164 Eskil consecrated Stephen, a 
monk from Alvastra, as archbishop of Uppsala. 
The ceremony was performed in the presence of 
Hadrian IV., in the cathedral of Sens, in France. 
The archbishops of Lund continued from this time 
until the Reformation to claim the primacy over 
the Scandinavian churches, and consecrated most 
of the archbishops of Uppsala, although several of 
them protested against the primacy. 

The close of Eskil's eventful life drew near, and 
at a diet in Lund, in 1178, King Valdemar, bish- 
ops, prelates, and councilors being present, the 






THE OLAVT'S PETRI MONUMENT IN STOCKHOLM. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 45 

old archbishop arose and resigned his office, ask- 
ing forgiveness for his faults and commending 
himself to the prayers of his beloved people. On 
the following day he read a papal bull permit- 
ting him to resign, and thereupon laid down on 
the altar his staff and ring, the insignia of his 
office. All who were present wept. Then the 
king asked Eskil to name his successor, and he 
read another bull authorizing him, as the papal 
legate of the North, to do so; but he added that 
he would not encroach upon the privileges of the 
clergy. Entreated, however, by the king and the 
clergy, the old archbishop appointed Absalon, 
bishop of Roeskilde, his relative and the king's 
trusted friend. The cathedral clergy of Lund con- 
curred and against Absalon's protest placed him 
in the archbishop's chair, meanwhile singing a 
hymn in which the whole congregation joined. 
Absalon thus became archbishop of Lund and 
papal legate, at the same time retaining the see of 
Roeskilde. Eskil entered a cloister in Clairvaux, 
in France, where he lived in meditation and 
quietude the rest of his life. He died in 1182. 

Absalon and his relatives, whom he granted 
diocesan estates, oppressed the common people. 
This led to a revolt, and when Absalon had fled 
to Denmark, the people decided that divine service 
could be held without a bishop, and that priests 



46 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

should be allowed to marry. Absalon then, in 
1180, put Skane under an interdict forbidding the 
clergy to perform religious services or administer 
the sacraments. This was the first and only in- 
terdict by any Swedish or Danish bishop, except 
the execrable interdict against Sweden, instigated 
by King Christian the Tyrant and pronounced, in 
1517, by Archbishop Birger of Lund. With the 
help of King Valdemar, Archbishop Absalon sub- 
dued the rebellion and afterwards harshly en- 
forced the canonical law of celibacy against many 
priests who were at the time living in honest 
Christian matrimony. He died in 1201 and was 
succeeded by Andreas Suneson, who had taken 
the Master's degree at the university of Paris. 
Suneson, as archbishop of Lund, followed King 
Valdemar Seier on his crusade to Esthonia in 
1219, and when the victory over the heathen 
Esthonians was won near Reval, so the legend 
assures us, the Christians received from heaven 
the Danish flag, the Dannebrog. 

The spirit of the Roman Catholic Church be- 
came more and more visible in these Scandinavian 
church dignitaries ; its features are also found in 
some characteristic traits and acts of the contem- 
porary Swedish clergy and laymen. The most 
representative persons of the Swedish hierarchy 
under the latter part of the mediaeval period are 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 47 

the three successive archbishops of Uppsala, Jons 
Bengtson Oxenstjerna, Jacobus Ulfson and Gus- 
tavus Trolle. 

Sweden, Denmark and Norway had been united 
into one kingdom in 1397, and in their own self- 
ish interest the Swedish prelates and aristocrats 
tried to sustain such a union against the nation- 
alist party of Sweden. Jons Bengtson Oxen- 
stjerna, archbishop of Uppsala, 1448 — 1467, was 
a leader of the unionist party, and as such, in 
1457, stepped to the high altar of his cathedral, 
laid down his archiepiscopal attire before the 
shrine of King Erik, put on helmet and armor, 
and swore solemnly to fight until he had set the 
fatherland free from the tyranny of the regent 
of Sweden, and obtained from the pope the pri- 
macy of Sweden. After various vicissitudes, dur- 
ing which the people once proclaimed that "Swe- 
den had always been a kingdom, not a parish," 
this proud and crafty prelate died in poverty and 
exile, considered a traitor to his country. 

Jacobus Ulfson, archbishop from 1470, belonged 
also to the unionist party but was more moderate 
of spirit. At Uppsala, where the majestic ca- 
thedral, built in Gothic style, had been dedicated 
in 1435, he, together with the regent, Sten Sture, 
founded a university in 1477, and secured for 
it the same privileges as those of the famous uni- 



48 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

versity of Paris, but on account of lack of funds 
it did not flourish long and was suspended about 
1515. Jacobus Ulfson died in 1521, having re- 
signed from his office in 1514, when Gustavus 
Trolle was chosen his successor. 

Gustavus Trolle assisted the enemies of Regent 
Sten Sture the Younger, and when the regent 
came to Uppsala and there, before the high altar, 
offered the archbishop reconciliation and friend- 
ship, he was treated with scorn and abuse by the 
ambitious prelate. Having allied himself with 
the Danish king, Christian II., who hastened to 
his help but was repulsed by Sten Sture, Gusta- 
vus Trolle appeared before the diet of Stockholm 
in 1517. In an insolent manner he there declared 
that he had fulfilled his duties by trying to de- 
liver Sweden to the Danish king, and that as 
archbishop he was accountable for his acts to the 
pope alone. The nobles and the people then 
unanimously resolved to depose the archbishop 
from office as a traitor, and to rase Staket, the 
archiepiscopal palace. 

Birger, the archbishop of Lund, on the authori- 
ty of Pope Leo X., threatened to excommunicate 
Sten Sture and his party and to suppress divine 
service in Sweden, unless Archbishop Gustavus 
Trolle was liberated from his confinement and 
restored to office. In 1520 King Christian II. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 49 

of Denmark made a third invasion of Sweden 
with a powerful army, recruited by the dowry of 
his wife, a sister of Emperor Charles V. And 
because the papal legate Arcimbold, who was 
then selling indulgences in Sweden, had been in- 
duced by rich gifts from Sten Sture to approve 
of the deposition of Archbishop Gustavus Trolle, 
the Danish king had procured papers from the 
pope, excommunicating Sten Sture, and suppress- 
ing divine service and administration of the 
sacraments in all Sweden. 

After the untimely death of the regent Sten 
Sture, the Swedish people were without a ruler, 
and by false promises King Christian gained en- 
trance into Stockholm and was there crowned with 
great pomp by Gustavus Trolle and some bish- 
ops. On the 7th of November, 1520, the bishops, 
nobles, and citizens were summoned to a coun- 
cil, and there Gustavus Trolle came forward and 
demanded satisfaction for his injuries. King 
Christian promised him full justice, and on the 
next day the accused persons were brought before 
a spiritual tribunal under the Danish bishop Jens 
Beldenacke. They were declared to be heretics, 
and their immediate execution was decreed. First 
the two bishops, Mathias of Strangnas and Vin- 
centius of Skara, were beheaded, although they 
had assisted in crowning Christian king of Swe- 



50 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

den, then twelve temporal lords, then the prin- 
cipal citizens of the capital, no less than 82 per- 
sons in all, and on the following day their servants 
and other citizens were hanged or beheaded. The 
reformer Olavus Petri, who accompanied his 
bishop, Mathias, to Stockholm, thus became an 
eyewitness of that horrible tragedy known as the 
Stockholm Massacre. Of it he wrote: "It was 
a pitiful and terrible sight to see how, in that 
rainy season, blood, mixed with water and filth, 
ran down the gutters off the market place, where 
all were in anguish because nobody knew how 
long he might be permitted to live." In letters 
to the provinces, King Christian proclaimed that 
he had caused those executed to be punished as 
notorious heretics, and he extended the awful mas- 
sacre into Finland, where among others the aged 
Bishop Hemming Gadd was beheaded. Christian, 
justly called "the Tyrant," marked his return 
from Stockholm to Denmark by the most bar- 
barous cruelties, more than six hundred persons 
being beheaded or hanged on the gallows. 

Falsifying the doctrine of Christ and forgetting 
his testimony: "My kingdom is not of this world," 
the Roman Catholic clergy had, in the North as 
elsewhere, degenerated into a political power with 
worldly ambitions and immense riches. The judg- 
ment came. The supremacy in Sweden of the 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE MIDDLE AGES 



51 



popish church came to an end with internal strife 
and horrible massacre; but praise be unto God, 
who caused the sun of righteousness to rise and 
shed the light of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ 
over our beloved fatherland. 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE 
CHURCH OF SWEDEN. 




IV. Olavus Petri. 

LL intelligent and true Lutherans love 
Dr. Martin Luther and esteem him as 
the greatest teacher among the church 
reformers of the sixteenth century. 
The Reformation came from Luther and Germany 
to Sweden, but it is an undeniable fact that the 
Swedish Lutheran Church has many characteristic 
traits of her own not only in church government 
and ceremonies but also in her spiritual and de- 
votional life. And as these national peculiarities 
were fostered by the Swedish church reformers, 
it is nothing more than proper for us to remember 
Olavus Petri, who is recognized as the greatest 
and the most representative reformer of the Swe- 
dish Church. Swedes will always highly esteem 
King Gustavus Vasa for his patriotism and for 
his protection of the evangelical reformation. 




LAURENTTIUS PETRI. 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 53 

Olavus Petri was born in 1493, at orebro, where 
his father was a blacksmith. In 1506 he was sent 
to the new university of Uppsala. But the activ- 
ity of the university was discontinued from the 
year 1515 to the year 1593, except for an attempt 
at reestablishment in the reign of John III., and 
so, by the providence of God, Olavus Petri was 
led to go abroad. After a short stay at the uni- 
versity of Leipzig during the spring term of 1516, 
he was matriculated as a student at the university 
of Wittenberg, which was renowned for the study 
of the Bible and for liberal research. 

Here Olavus Petri studied with diligence and 
reverence at the feet of Dr. Luther for a period 
of two years, years of the utmost importance to 
the calling of the future Swedish reformer. Lu- 
ther preached often in Wittenberg during this 
time, proclaiming the saving truths in the most 
comprehensible form. This Biblical and popular 
activity exercised great influence over the young 
Swedish student, who afterwards distinguished 
himself as one of the ablest expounders of the 
Word of God to the untutored people. During this 
time Olavus Petri also had the blessed opportu- 
nity to hear the reformer lecture on the psalter 
and the Epistles to the Romans, the Galatians, and 
the Hebrews. It was by such sermons and lec- 
tures that Olavus Petri grew in grace and true 



54 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

evangelical knowledge and was made steadfast in 
the saving doctrine of justification by faith alone 
for Christ's sake. And then came the ever mem- 
orable turning point in the history of the Church, 
when, on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed 
to the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg 
his ninety-five theses against the papal indul- 
gences. 

Although Olavus Petri graduated as Master of 
Arts in February, 1518, he tarried at Wittenberg 
and improved the opportunity to hear Philipp Me- 
lanchthon's able lectures in the Greek language. 
In October of the same year Dr. Luther appeared 
in Augsburg before Cardinal Cajetan, and in the 
following month Olavus Petri, rich in spiritual 
knowledge and experience, returned to Sweden. 
Olavus Petri admired his spiritual father, Dr. 
Luther, could never stand to hear his work dis- 
paraged by the Papists, and studied his books as 
they appeared; but he revealed a certain inde- 
pendence which had its origin partly in the na- 
tional genius and partly in his own trend. 

Trusting in his Saviour, Olavus Petri came back 
to his bleeding fatherland, which at this time was 
oppressed by a desolating war, suffered injury 
from the papal ban and was despoiled by the 
rapacity of a trafficker in indulgences, John Ar- 
cimbold. The young master was first made chan- 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 55 

cellor to Bishop Mathias of Strangnas, and in 1520 
ordained deacon, receiving a canonship. Bishop 
Mathias and Olavus Petri went together to Stock- 
holm, where the bishop was beheaded in the Stock- 
holm Massacre. Olavus Petri was saved through 
the special providence of God. Strangnas then be- 
came the starting point of the evangelical refor- 
mation in Sweden. Olavus Petri there began to 
translate and expound the New Testament. 
Several attentive students gathered around him, 
among whom was the old archdeacon Laurentius 
Andreae, then the head man of the diocese. But 
the evangelical doctrine was opposed by bitter 
adversaries, especially by Hans Brask, bishop 
of Linkoping, who circulated among the Swedish 
prelates the papal bull against Luther. Learning 
that the reformers appealed to St. Paul, he said : 
"Paul had better be burnt than known to every 
man." Brask endeavored to persuade the papal 
legate to Sweden, John Magni, to prosecute 
Olavus Petri, but the legate was of a weaker dis- 
position, and besides he hoped to be made arch- 
bishop of Sweden. 

About this time God sent Gustavus Vasa to 
rescue our fatherland from Danish as well as 
hierarchical dominion and oppression. Gustavus 
Vasa, born in 1496, in Uppland, of honorable 
parents, had been treacherously carried off as 



56 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

hostage by Christian II. and kept by him in prison 
for about two years. The young nobleman es- 
caped first to Liibeck and then to his home in 
Rafsnas, where he heard of the Stockholm Mas- 
sacre, in which his own father was beheaded. 
Escaping to Dalarne, Gustavus Vasa aroused the 
Dalecarlians to revolt against the Danish oppres- 
sion and was chosen their leader. In 1521 he was 
master of the central Swedish provinces, except 
Stockholm and certain castles. In 1523, at the 
Diet of Strangnas, he was elected king of Sweden, 
and by the end of the year he had liberated the 
whole country, except the island of Gotland, 
which continued to be under Danish dominion. 
At the diet he met Laurentius Andrese and Olavus 
Petri, and obtained from them a knowledge of 
the Protestant cause and its bearing on the rela- 
tion between the Church and the State. From 
that time on he took a vital interest in the reform 
movement, political motives, however, being the 
chief incentive with him. 

Shortly after the Diet of Strangnas the king 
appointed Laurentius Andreae his chancellor; and 
Olavus Petri, although not yet an ordained priest, 
was made preacher at the church of St. Nicholaus 
in Stockholm, and a secretary of the city council. 
In both these capacities Olavus Petri exerted a 
very great influence and was soon known as 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 57 

"Master Olavus in the basket," his pulpit having 
that shape. Preaching the gospel of Christ faith- 
fully, he was there often pelted with stones and 
other missiles by a superstitious crowd, who 
thereby would prove the Roman doctrine of right- 
eousness by works and not by faith. By preach- 
ing the pure Word of God, by manly courage and 
patient endurance, Olavus Petri, however, suc- 
ceeded in establishing the evangelical reformation. 
Nothing but a misconstrued tradition is the 
story of a disturbance in Stockholm, in 1524 or 
1525, raised by two anabaptists, Melchior Rinck 
and Knipperdolling, with the connivance of the 
evangelical preachers Olavus Petri and Nicolas 
Lagerbeen, for which they are said to have been 
reprimanded by the king. These anabaptists were 
at that very time in Germany, and no such dis- 
turbance is mentioned by the reformers or by 
their adversaries. Decisive action against the 
Roman law of celibacy was taken by Olavus Petri 
in 1525, when he was joined in holy matrimony 
to a pious lady, named Christina. Bishop Brask 
hastened to complain to the king, who answered 
that Olavus might justify himself. No action was 
taken against the reformer; the cloisters were 
soon deserted, and some of the monks went as 
missionaries to Lapland, this being the first Lu- 
theran mission in any country. 

Life Pictures. 5. 



58 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

In 1526 Olavus Petri published anonymously 
his translation of the New Testament in a fine 
folio edition, of which the title page bore only 
these words: "Jesus. Thet Nya Testamentit pa 
Swensko" Some have given the honor of its 
translation to Laurentius Andrese, because he 
was then the most distinguished of the Swedish 
reformers; but Messenius, a well informed his- 
torian (f 1637) states expressly that Olavus Petri 
was the translator, and this is now generally 
accepted by literary critics on account of the 
language, certain quotations and expressions, etc. 
The whole Bible, known as the Bible of Gustavus 
Vasa, was published in Swedish in 1541, being 
translated mainly by Laurentius Petri, a younger 
brother of Olavus, who studied in Wittenberg 
under Melanchthon. In a noble, vigorous and 
popular style the translation of the New Testa- 
ment followed faithfully the original according to 
the Greek edition of Erasmus, save in the latter 
part which followed Luther's German version. 
The Gustavus Vasa Bible, dependent partly on 
Luther's version and partly on the Vulgate, with 
few alterations remained the Swedish authorized 
version until 1883. 

By the translation of the New Testament the 
reformation was advanced. The king caused a 
volume to be printed, entitled, "Twelve Questions 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 59 

about the Evangelical and Popish Doctrines," cop- 
ies of which were sent to the defenders of the old 
religion as w r ell as to the evangelical reformers. 
Dr, Peder Galle replied to the Twelve Questions 
on behalf of the Roman Catholics, after which 
Olavus Petri had the replies of Galle, together 
with his own rejoinders, printed together. The 
champions of the new and the old faith had to 
meet once more. At the Diet of Vasteras, in 
1527, the king, by resigning his crown, subdued 
the Catholic clergy, subsequently consenting to 
resume the government. After a public disputa- 
tion between Olavus Petri and Dr. Galle, it seemed 
to the States-General that, "The king's preachers 
had given good reasons for their cause, and that 
they had not preached anything else than the 
Word of God." And the Ordinance of Vasteras 
enjoins, "That the Word of God shall be preached 
in its truth and purity in all parts of the king- 
dom." Bishop Brask left Sweden the same year, 
and Gustavus Vasa, without confirmation from 
Rome, had his bishops-elect consecrated by Petrus 
Magni, bishop of Vasteras, in 1528, and was him- 
self crowned king by them. The coronation ser- 
mon was delivered by Olavus Petri, who, declaring 
that all subjects, clergy and laity, should obey the 
king, admonished him to cause the pure Word of 
God to be preached everywhere in his kingdom. 



60 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

The reformer also had a literary controversy 
with Paul Eliae, a Carmelite friar of Helsingor 
(Elsinore), who, once a Protestant, had turned 
Catholic again. This monk shamefully slandered 
Dr. Luther and afterward wrote an arrogant and 
malignant answer to Gustavus Vasa's Twelve 
Questions. Olavus Petri answered him in a very 
sharp letter, in which he says : "In this and in my 
preceding writing to you I have treated this mat- 
ter with some severity, and this has been done 
(I confess it), not with such gentleness as befits 
a Christian, but as your malignant writing de- 
manded. 1 have, however, spared you, and I 

tell you now plainly that from this day I will not 
thus treat this matter. Whatever glory and 
praise might come from blasphemous and rancor- 
ous words, I do not desire." Olavus Petri kept 
his word, and among the church reformers he 
stands as the earnest, noble Swedish evangelist. 

Olavus Petri taught his countrymen to read and 
write their own language, by publishing in the 
first four years of his literary activity twice as 
many books as had been published before in Swe- 
den. His style is always clear and plain. "For 
the benefit of the simple clergy," as he says in the 
preface, he published his version of the New Tes- 
tament, and, in 1530, his Postil, containing plain 
and short but very edifying and instructive ser- 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 61 

mons on the gospel texts of the Church year. Im- 
mediately after these sermons followed his Cate- 
chism, resembling those of Luther and Brenz, but 
independent, the Third Article of the Creed being 
especially full and in this respect a harbinger of 
genuine Swedish Lutheranism. In the year 1528 
he published several spiritual tracts, entitled, "On 
Priests and Laymen ;" "On the Sacraments ;" "On 
Marriage ;" "On the Monastic Life;" "On the 
Word of God and the Ordinances of Men." 

To these books Olavus Petri in 1529 added "A 
Manual in Swedish, wherein Baptism and Other 
Things are to be found." Concerning this manual 
Dr. 0. Quensel remarks: "Olavus Petri hardly 
had access to more than one Lutheran manual, 
namely, 'Das Taufbuchlein' of 1523." Thus every- 
thing tends to show that Olavus Petri, with this 
exception, composed the Handbook of 1529 with- 
out guidance of any existing foreign ritual. Con- 
sequently this Handbook is to be regarded as the 
first Church Manual, not only in Sweden, but in 
the whole Lutheran Church. Among other pre- 
cious jewels in this Handbook may be mentioned 
the beautiful prayer to be read at the burial of 
the dead, beginning, "Almighty, merciful and 
eternal God, who on account of sin, etc." This 
church manual also introduced the Swedish cus- 
tom of the minister throwing earth into the grave 



62 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

three times. This prayer and burial service has 
been transferred from the Handbook of Olavus 
Petri to the Danish ritual of 1682, to the Prussian 
"Agende" of 1822, and to the Bavarian ritual of 
1852. And why should it not be used in the whole 
Lutheran Church in North America? 

In 1531 Olavus Petri published "The Swedish 
Mass as it is Celebrated in Stockholm. With 
Reasons for Conducting it in such Manner." Its 
version of the Confession of Sins, composed by 
Olavus Petri, is still, with a few minor alterations, 
used in all Swedish Lutheran churches. The 
Swedish liturgy of Olavus Petri is truly evan- 
gelical, but conservative, and follows in the main 
Luther's "Die Deutsche Messe." 

In the year 1526 Olavus Petri published the 
first hymn book, of which no copy is now extant, 
and in 1530 a new edition, of which only a frag- 
ment exists. The hymn book was again edited 
by him in 1536 and then contained 46 hymns, to 
which were added, in two appendices, 8 more. 
The present Swedish hymn book contains 27 of 
these hymns, many of which will always be 
counted among the most precious and beautiful 
pearls in the treasury of Christian hymns. 

In 1529 King Gustavus Vasa convened a Church 
Council at orebro which passed evangelical Prot- 
estant resolutions on preaching and teaching, 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 63 

church discipline and ceremonies, all in accord- 
ance with the king's motto : "Instruct first, reform 
afterwards. " Laurentius Petri, who had been a 
schoolmaster at Uppsala, was elected archbishop 
in 1531, and at his consecration received his 
bishop's staff from the king's own hand. In the 
years 1531 — 33 Olavus Petri succeeded Lauren- 
tius Andrese as chancellor to the king, the office 
interfering with his literary activity during that 
time. To this period may, however, belong his 
"Swedish Chronicle," a history which still retains 
its value, also "Rules for Judges," a work often 
printed as a preface to the Swedish Law Book. 
Here Olavus proves himself to be a noble Chris- 
tian humanist, with broad democratic views and 
far in advance of his age. In proof, two quota- 
tions may here be given : "The judge shall remem- 
ber that as he himself is God's commissioner, the 
people he has to judge also belong to God." — "All 
punishment ought to aim at amendment, and all 
punishment ought to be such, if possible, that the 
same does not prevent him who has been pun- 
ished from amending." 

The king disliked the "Swedish Chronicle," be- 
cause it did not cover his political plans. His 
dissatisfaction with the reformer grew, when the 
latter urged that property confiscated from con- 
vents and churches should be appropriated to 



64 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

sustain poor preachers, schoolmasters, and stu- 
dents. Such proposals did not suit the king, and 
he dismissed Olavus Petri from the chancellor- 
ship. The reformer continued his work as an 
evangelical preacher in Stockholm and in 1535 
published two excellent books, "Admonition to all 
Evangelical Preachers," and A little Book, where- 
in is taught, by what means a man obtains Eternal 
Salvation." The latter presents his conception of 
the Scriptural doctrine of justification and is, as 
has justly been said, "the mature expression of 
his dogmatic standpoint." 

In 1539, at Strangnas, Olavus Petri was or- 
dained a minister of the gospel. The same year 
witnessed a complete alienation between the king 
and the two reformers, Olavus Petri and Lauren- 
tius Andrese. Two foreigners who had destroyed 
his confidence in them, subsequently displaced 
them. The one was a Dutch adventurer, Von Pyhy, 
who became chancellor, the other was a Pomer- 
anian nobleman, George Norman. Both sought to 
create an Established Church according to Ger- 
man models without respect to existing circum- 
stances in Sweden. Laurentius Andrese was re- 
ported to have said that "he and his evangelical 
crowd were as mighty as His Majesty the king," 
and the king was especially angry with Olavus 
Petri on account of his severe sermon "Against 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 65 

the horrible oaths." On December 31, 1539, both 
reformers were accused of high treason, but 
were not allowed to see the bill of indictment nor 
to defend themselves in writing. Two days after- 
wards a unanimous verdict was pronounced, and, 
to quote the words of Archbishop Sundberg: "On 
the most miserable grounds, they were condemned 
to death by a very peculiarly improvised court of 
justice." 

It is generally claimed that the two reformers 
were condemned to death for not having revealed 
a gunpowder plot to blow up the king, of which 
plot they had received knowledge by secret con- 
fession. But the conspiracy had been discovered 
four years previously, and Laurentius Andrese had 
then been reprimanded by the king for having 
concealed the same. In the bill of indictment 
against them, written in poor, coarse, and inco- 
herent language, the reformers are accused, among 
other things, of despoiling churches and cloisters 
and inducing the king to take part in the church 
reformation. The king may possibly have deliv- 
ered them up as sacrifices to appease the bitter 
and rebellious foes of the reformation. 

But, God be praised, the lives of the two noble 
reformers were saved from that unjust execution. 
The judges, one among whom was Laurentius 
Petri, went immediately to the king and prayed 



66 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

him to pardon those whom they had condemned 
to death. The reformers were pardoned, and the 
king changed the cruel verdict to a heavy fine. 
The aged Laurentius Andrese was thereby reduced 
to abject poverty, in which he died in 1552. The 
city of Stockholm willingly paid the fine imposed 
upon its beloved preacher and secretary. 

In 1543 Olavus Petri was made pastor of the 
principal church of Stockholm, "Storkyrkan," but 
Gustavus Vasa vainly sought to make him his 
obedient instrument by charging him to write a 
history in the personal interest of the king. The 
reformer, who loved the truth too much to be a 
flatterer, declined the task. Always showing sin- 
cere fidelity to the king, Olavus Petri continued to 
be the resolute defender of truth and liberty, and 
preached the pure gospel of Christ during the re- 
mainder of his life as faithfully as in his former 
days. In 1552 he closed his blessed life "after a 
Christian and edifying preparation and an ex- 
press confession of his faith in Christ Jesus." 

Sweden has at last recognized its debt of grati- 
tude to Olavus Petri, and in 1898 a statue of the 
great reformer of the Church of Sweden was 
solemnly unveiled in front of "Storkyrkan" in 
Stockholm, where he had preached and was buried. 
On the front of the pedestal of this statue are 
inscribed these timely and characteristic words, 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 67 

taken from the preface of his "Swedish Church 
Service :" Vi svenskar hora ock Gud till sa val 
som annat folk, och det mal vi hafva, det har Gud 
gifvit oss." (We Swedes, as well as other people, 
belong to God, and the language we have is a gift 
of God.) 

The memory of King Gustavus as a patriot 
and a stateman is justly cherished in our old 
fatherland, because he liberated it both from Da- 
nish oppression and from papal hierarchy. During 
his reign he had to suppress several revolts, oc- 
casioned mostly by adherents of the old religion ; 
but his last years were more quiet and prosperous. 
He died in 1560 and was succeeded by his un- 
happy son Erik. In his views of the relation be- 
tween State and Church, Gustavus Vasa is said 
to have shown some resemblance to King Henry 
VIII. of England; but Gustavus Vasa was a far 
better and nobler man. Olavus Petri had the 
heroic spirit of Martin Luther, but differed from 
this great reformer in his calm objectivity, severe 
earnestness, and sad longing for eternal rest — 
an embodiment, so to say, of the spirit of our dear 
fatherland, with its sombre, rock-bound coasts and 
the sweet sadness of its short-lived northern 
summer. 

The Lutheran Augustana Synod owes gratitude 
and veneration to Olavus Petri for his reforma- 



68 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

tory work, his liturgy and psalms, and his pure 
preaching of the Word of God. May we all fol- 
low his example of deep earnestness and faithful 
adherence to the evangelical doctrine of justifica- 
tion by faith in Christ Jesus ! 







V. The Council of Uppsala. 




UR Lord and Saviour has promised to 
bless and protect from dangers the 
people that fear Him and keep "the 
word of His patience." How sure is 
this promise, like all His other promises, and 
how it has been fulfilled, is clearly to be seen 
in the history of His Church. And to the praise 
of His name we may here especially mention the 
Church of our fathers. In the fear of the Lord, 
and trusting in Him alone, they kept His Word 
and confessed it faithfully at the memorable 
Council of Uppsala, in March, 1593. And He 
blessed their work, crowned them with grace and 
mercy, and made them a blessing for other peo- 
ple and coming generations. 

God will therefore certainly show mercy and 
kindness likewise unto us, and let His blessings 
abide with us, if we, as our fathers before us, 
keep His Word unfalsified and humbly confess 
Him according to His gospel. This we do in the 
Unaltered Augsburg Confession of 1530, which 



70 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

was adopted and confirmed by the Swedish 
Church at its Council of Uppsala. At the jubilee 
festival celebrated at Rock Island, Illinois, in the 
year 1910, the testimony that the Lutheran 
Augustana Synod has faithfully kept this same 
glorious confession, was the Synod's crown of 
glory and a surety for coming victories in the 
might of Christ Jesus and His gospel. 

After the death, in 1573, of Archbishop Lau- 
rentius Petri, the last survivor of the Swedish 
church reformers, King John III. (1568 — 72) 
attempted another kind of reformation. He be- 
longed to that group of renaissance men who 
without any evangelical faith dreamed of the 
restoration of the old Catholic Church, by means 
of such things as chasubles, surplices, incense, 
altar processions, and all that outward show 
which is effective only when the twilight of self- 
conceit falls upon the Church. He had married 
a Polish Catholic princess. Her rich heritage and 
the crown of Poland loomed before his avarice 
and ambition. The sly Jesuits scented their prey 
and stealthily made their way into Sweden, hop- 
ing to regain it for the pope, who was to assist 
the king in gaining his end. The proud prelate, 
however, himself put difficulties in the way of 
the Jesuits, when he denied the king the conces- 
sions asked for, namely, the communion under 



THE KEFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 71 

both kinds, * and permission for priests to marry. 
The king would then have a compromise form of 
religion of his own, though even this was in fact 
a fruit of his intercourse with Jesuits and renais- 
sance men of his own type. The result was his 
"Ordinantia" of 1575 and "The King's Liturgy" 
of 1576, which, on account of its red cover, was 
generally called "The Red Book" This liturgy 
was a mixture of Lutheran forms and the Roman 
mass, pretending to rest on the foundation of the 
Holy Scriptures and the consensus of the church 
fathers up to the death of Gregory the Great, 
in 604. 

Senators, noblemen, bishops, and pastors re- 
ceived the new liturgy in the same half-hearted 
manner toward the king that he had adopted to- 
ward the pope. But when the latter would not 
sanction the Red Book or make any concessions, 
King John grew obstinate and persisted in his 
demand that the Red Book be used by all the 
clergy in Sweden. Even after the death of his 
wife, and his conflict with Rome, he prosecuted 
and imprisoned or banished many true evangelical 
confessors, because they would not accept his half- 



* In the early Church, up to 1215, both the bread and the 
wine in the Lord's Supper were given to all the communi- 
cants; but from that time on in the Roman Catholic Church 
the cup has been withheld from the laity. 



72 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

Romish religion. His younger brother, Duke 
Charles, received and protected the persecuted 
Protestants, and the consciences of many mis- 
guided persons and of some apostates began at 
last to awake and to cry to God for help. From 
all quarters of the Swedish Church the king was 
then asked to convoke a general council, to which 
request he consented shortly before his death in 
1592. 

The Lutheran Church of Sweden had now 
reached a crisis in its existence, which, however 
serious, had to be met. The hour appointed by 
God's providence had come. It remained to be 
seen whether she was ready and willing to keep 
the pure Word of God and suffer for it, or, in the 
hour of trial, forsake it. King John's liturgy dis- 
appeared after his death. His son Sigismund, a 
bigoted Roman Catholic, educated by the Jesuits, 
was, since 1587, king of Poland, and now inherited 
the crown of Sweden. The Swedish clergy de- 
manded that a promised "general Christian and 
free council" be held before the arrival of King 
Sigismund in Sweden. Duke Charles, who, to- 
gether with the senators, by the sanction of Sigis- 
mund had been placed at the head of affairs ad 
interim, convened the council in Uppsala on the 
25th of February, 1593, to adjust the existing 
disagreements in doctrine and church ceremonies. 




CATHEDRAL OF UPPSALA. 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 73 

The Council of Uppsala was neither a parlia- 
ment (riksdag) nor simply a ministerial meeting, 
similar to the diocesan convocations. It was a 
General Council of the whole Church of Sweden. 
At the preliminary deliberations concerning the 
Council, the senators desired that the clergy alone 
should be convoked, but Duke Charles insisted 
that in the combat with the Papists there should be 
no aping of papal methods. True, the clerical 
members of the Council, about 300, were indeed 
the deliberating and deciding majority, but in 
addition there were present the duke and nine 
senators, several noblemen, and also delegates 
from the various cities and towns of the kingdom. 

The Word of God says: 'Where the Spirit of 
the Lord is, there is liberty." This promise was 
fulfilled at the Council of Uppsala, which, gather- 
ed around the Holy Scriptures and trusting in the 
Lord, truly represented "a free Church in a free 
State." This Council did not resemble the synod- 
ical meetings held during the times of Gustavus 
Vasa and John III., where the kings dictated the 
decrees. The Church of Sweden would no longer 
suffer popes or princes to determine her confes- 
sion and liturgy. The final decree of this Council 
shows clearly that the Lutheran Church of Swe- 
den maintained her independence not only against 
Roman but also against Reformed influences. 

Life Pictures. 6. 



74 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

One of the purposes in convoking the Council 
was to safeguard the independence of the Swedish 
Church in its relation to the royal power, and 
permission to hold the Council was neither asked 
for nor expected from King Sigismund. This 
purpose was publicly expressed by Nils Gyllen- 
stjerna, chancellor of justice, when on the first 
day of March, on behalf of the duke and the 
senators, he bade the Council welcome, saying: 
"The king shall not, when he comes, be lord over 
our faith and our conscience." In his response 
the compliant bishop of Linkoping, Petrus Bene- 
dicti, asked the duke and the senators for their 
instructions concerning the order of procedure at 
the Council; but for doing so he was sharply re- 
buked by Master Ericus Schepperus of Stockholm, 
who said : "As this meeting is to be a free council, 
such instructions were both improper and unnec- 
essary." As a Lutheran Free Church the Evan- 
gelical Augustana Synod certainly has the greatest 
reasons for remembering reverently the Council of 
Uppsala, and for thanking God alike for its faith- 
ful confession and for its manly and steadfast 
independence. 

On the appoirted date at least 306 clergymen 
gathered for evening services in the Cathedral of 
Uppsala. Among them were four bishops, Petrus 
Benedicti of Linkoping, Petrus Jonse of Strang- 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 75 

nas, Olavus Bellinus of Vasteras, and Ericus Erici 
of Abo; also the four former professors at the 
Collegium of Stockholm. On the following day a 
general session was held, at which Bishop Bellinus 
admonished the members present to strive in a 
spirit of meekness for concord, peace and recon- 
ciliation. The next day Professor Ericus Schin- 
nerus delivered an address on the Holy Scriptures 
and the study of theology. He praised Dr. Martin 
Luther and King Gustavus Vasa, but censured 
especially the bishops who, although they ought 
to have known the pernicious character of King 
John's liturgy, had assisted him by their hypocri- 
sy. After the close of his address a business ses- 
sion was held for determining the order of pro- 
cedure, the bishops urging that the election of an 
archbishop should be postponed until the Council 
had formulated its doctrinal views. The duke did 
not arrive until the following day, February 28th, 
and on the next day the Council was formally 
opened. 

No presiding officer had as yet been elected, 
and a majority of the members, especially those 
from the diocese of Uppsala, insisted upon the 
immediate election of an archbishop. Both parties 
appealed to the duke, and two senators approached 
him for advice. He told them that it was im- 
proper to ape the pope in having, as a matter of 



76 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

necessity, an archbishop or bishop as president 
of the Council, and that they ought rather to elect 
a suitable man from among themselves. This 
man should, however, have no authority after the 
close of the Council. The session of March 2nd 
was, as all the following sessions, opened with 
prayer and the singing of : "Veni sancte Spiritus." 
In due course Professor Nicolaus Olavi Bothnien- 
sis (Nils Botniensis) was elected president. He 
excused himself as being a young and inexperi- 
enced man, but the four bishops and the Council 
unanimously urged him to accept this commis- 
sion, which Duke Charles immediately confirmed. 
Nicolaus Olavi, who was elected to this high posi- 
tion of trust, had previously been imprisoned for 
about three years on account of his manly and 
conscientious resistance to the Ordinantia and 
the Red Book. He was a very learned orientalist 
and theologian, having studied genuine Lutheran 
theology under the renowned Dr. David Chytraeus 
at the University of Rostock in 1578 — 1584. 

The most important transactions of the Council 
were the adoption and sanction of a common con- 
fession for the Church of Sweden, which up to 
that time it had not possessed. To be sure, true 
and unfalsified Lutheran doctrine had been 
preached with great success by the Swedish re- 
formers and their disciples in accordance with the 



THE KEFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 77 

Vasteras Recess, the church law enacted at the 
Diet of Vasteras in 1527, which required "that 
the Word of God should be preached in its purity," 
but subsequent adversities under King John III. 
seem to have been the necessary test without 
which the pure gospel could not become the prop- 
erty of the whole people, and the Church of Swe- 
den be definitely established as a true Lutheran 
Church with a distinct Lutheran confession. 

The transactions proper of the Council of Upp- 
sala began on the third day of March. The presi- 
dent exhorted all the members in one accord to 
pray for the guidance and blessing of God. A 
confession of common faith was then adopted. 
Olavus Martini, one of the two secretaries elected 
by the Council, read distinctly seven theses on the 
Holy Scriptures, consistent with the Formula of 
Concord. In these theses, drawn up by the presi- 
dent, it was forcibly urged and affirmed : "We be- 
lieve and confess that the Holy Scriptures were 
given through the Holy Spirit ; and that they con- 
tain, completely, everything belonging to the 
Christian doctrine concerning God Almighty and 
our salvation, concerning virtue and good works ; 
and that they are a foundation and support to a 
pure Christian faith, a canon whereby to judge, 
discern and prevent all disagreement in religion ; 
that obscure passages must be interpreted accord- 



78 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

ing to the analogy of faith; that no explanation 
is necessary, either by the holy fathers or by 
others, whoever they may be, who have added of 
their own that which is not in harmony with the 
Holy Scriptures; that no man has a right to ex- 
plain God's word according to his own mind ; that 
nothing but the Holy Scriptures shall have abso- 
lute authority; and that we will abide by the 
Apostles' Creed, and the Nicene, and the Athana- 
sian symbola as the orthodox consensus of the 
Christian faith in the primitive Church." The 
president and Bishop Petrus Jonse further ex- 
plained the theses, which were then unanimously 
adopted. Afterwards their contents were incor- 
porated in the final decree of the Council. 

When this sound foundation had thus been laid, 
no new confession of the members themselves was 
brought forth, but the unaltered Augsburg Con- 
fession, the uniting bond of the whole Lutheran 
Church, was presented and earnestly discussed 
in the following manner. The secretary, Olavus 
Martini, read each article in its order, first in 
Latin and afterwards in Swedish, after which the 
president, the four bishops, and other ministers 
expounded each article. Full liberty to express 
himself was given to each member present, and 
anyone who was dissatisfied with the explanation 
or doubted the truth of any article, was exhorted 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 79 

to state his doubts, that nobody might afterwards 
complain of compulsion or misunderstanding. The 
first four articles of the Augsburg Confession 
were thus profoundly treated in the forenoon and 
the five following in the afternoon. The next day, 
Sunday, Bishop Petrus Jonse preached in the 
morning and Chaplain Engelbert of Stockholm in 
the evening. Both of these men had suffered very 
much owing to their opposition to King John's 
Red Book. 

During both sessions of the following day the 
remaining part of our glorious Lutheran Confes- 
sion was discussed and unanimously adopted. In 
the discussion of the tenth article, on the Lord's 
Supper, the president earnestly admonished the 
clergy carefully to guard against Calvinistic er- 
ror, whereupon Bishop Petrus Jonse arose and 
cleared himself of the suspicion of such error. 
When the reading and discussion of the whole 
Confession was finished, Bishop Jonae again 
stepped forth and solemnly asked the senators and 
all members present: "Do ye sanction this Con- 
fession, as it is now read and approved?" Stand- 
ing up, all unanimously declared that they would 
not forsake it, but willingly sacrifice life and 
blood for this Confession. The president then 
exclaimed loudly: "Now Sweden has become as 
one man, and we have all one Lord and one God." 



80 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

Here the question might well arise, why the 
Council of 1593 did not adopt the entire Book of 
Concord, which was published as early as 1580? 
Nicolaus Olavi and several other leading men of 
the Council having studied under Dr. Chytrseus, 
one of the chief editors of the Formula of Concord, 
had by their actions and writings clearly shown 
that they were in full and hearty accord with 
their esteemed teacher and with all the Symbolical 
books contained in the Book of Concord. Never- 
theless these Symbolical books were at that time 
not sufficiently known in Sweden to be treated 
and adopted intelligently in the few days allotted 
to the Council. There was also pedagogical wis- 
dom in delaying the adoption of the whole Book of 
Concord by the Swedish Church until the appro- 
priate time should come. Such adoption was asked 
for by the clergy in 1647 and was authorized by 
the government in 1663. A Swedish translation 
of the Augsburg Confession was published in 1593 
by Archbishop Abraham Angermannus and Pro- 
fessor Jacobus Erici. 

At the following morning session of the Council 
Pastor Schepperus preached in the Cathedral, and 
in the afternoon the Red Book was the topic for 
general discussion. King John's liturgy found no 
defenders, although the president exhorted anyone 
who so desired to speak in its defense. After a 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 81 

prolonged general silence, whereby the Romaniz- 
ing liturgy was condemned, the bishops of Lin- 
koping, Vasteras and Abo, who under King John 
had favored the Red Book, came forward and 
solemnly renounced it, asking God and the whole 
assembly to forgive their error. Former mass- 
priests and their delegates did the same thing. 
All who during persecutions and sufferings had 
faithfully confessed the pure gospel received 
thanks, and a solemn pause again ensued. All the 
clergymen extended brotherly hands to each other 
in mutual recognition, and all promised to forget 
past strife. A unanimous and hearty "Yea !" was 
the answer to the president's question whether 
they rejected the Red Book. On the next day 
were read certain theological memorials, by the 
German universities of Leipzig, Wittenberg, and 
others, concerning King John's liturgy. 

On the following days of the same week certain 
necessary resolutions were passed by the Council 
concerning divine service and church discipline. 
New Roman Catholic festival days and several 
superstitious ceremonies in connection with the 
service and the sacraments were abolished. A 
request was made that the hymns and sermons 
of the reformers Olavus and Laurentius Petri 
should be gathered and republished, and the 
Agenda of Laurentius Petri, 1572, was also ex- 



82 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

amined and confirmed. Furthermore a desire was 
expressed that the university of Uppsala, which 
had suspended in 1580, should be reopened. Com- 
plaints were presented that the government in- 
terfered with the election of pastors and bishops, 
or exerted undue influence over the Church. Dur- 
ing the reign of John III. schools had not been 
kept up, and unworthy priests had secured the 
best positions through officiousness and assent to 
the king's religious views. In view of this moral 
decay the Council of Uppsala was obliged to make 
arrangements to send an evangelical minister to 
inquire into the moral condition at Vadstena. 
And a miserable state of affairs he found in that 
celebrated convent. 

After the following Sunday, March 11, when the 
usual services were held in the Cathedral, the 
conflict began between Duke Charles and the 
clergy. In the midst of this struggle the election 
of an archbishop occurred. The eloquent Master 
Abraham Andrese Angermannus, who had been 
exiled for his fidelity to the Lutheran confession, 
was by an almost unanimous vote elected to this 
position. The cause of the contention with the 
duke lay in his leanings toward Reformed views. 
Rejecting the doctrine of predestination, but 
adopting the Calvinistic doctrine of the sacra- 
ment, the latter imagined that he could stand 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 83 

independent between the two Protestant doc- 
trines. 

The duke was displeased because certain cere- 
monies, offensive to him, had been retained, but 
the Council stood by its resolutions, as well for 
the sake of Christian liberty in such things as for 
preventing distrust among the common people. 
The result of the negotiations was, that many 
members of the Council refused to subscribe to 
the decree unless the Calvinistic doctrines were 
expressly condemned. The president, Nicolaus 
Olavi, and the bishops of Linkoping and Strang- 
nas did not originally desire this amendment ; but 
in the interest of peace they went to the duke to 
procure his consent. Offended at their request, he 
exclaimed at last: "Put all those whom ye know 
to be of that kind, and even the evil one, in hell ; 
because he also is my enemy." Thus the final form 
of the decree included this sentence: "Likewise 
do we reject entirely the heresies of the Sacra- 
mentarians, Zwinglians, Calvinists and Anabap- 
tists, and all other heresies, whatever be their 
name, which we at no time will approve or agree 
to." 

The clergy assembled the same day, the 19th 
day of March, in Uppsala Castle, and delivered the 
Decree of the Council to the duke, the senators 
and the other laymen. When these had heard and 



84 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

approved it, they promised to subscribe their 
names to the document. The Council was there- 
upon adjourned. The following day the decree 
was subscribed to by the duke, the senators, bish- 
ops, noblemen, pastors and deputies from cities 
and towns. During the following spring the De- 
cree of the Council was sent in authorized tran- 
scripts to all parts of the country and was thus 
finally subscribed to by 14 senators, 7 bishops, 128 
noblemen, 137 government officials, 1,556 clergy- 
men, mayors of 36 cities, and had affixed the seals 
of 197 counties. The original manuscript of the 
decree of the Council was, at the centennial anni- 
versary, in 1693, by King Charles XI. placed in a 
silver box, and is still preserved in the royal 
archives. 

At the death of King John III., Pope Clement 
VIII. had sent his legate Malaspina to Sigismund 
with 30,000 ducats as a subsidy to bring Sweden 
back under subjection to the papal chair. And 
at Sigismund's departure from Poland to Sweden 
a new papal nuncio arrived with more money and 
similar malicious proposals. One of these was, 
that "a Jesuit college could perhaps be immediate- 
ly established in Stockholm. If that could not be 
done, the king should certainly take with him to 
Poland as many able young Swedes as he might 
find and let them be educated in the Roman Cath- 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 85 

olic faith at his court, or by some of the most 
zealous bishops, or in Polish Jesuit colleges." This 
was the same old and oft-repeated trickery of 
Papists and infidels who hope to triumph over 
truth by getting young men under their control 
and educating them in the ways of falsehood. 

In their fight against such a foe the ministers 
of the Swedish Lutheran Church risked their lives 
and property. With the assistance of the other 
estates of the realm and of the duke, they at last 
compelled Sigismund to promise, "by his Chris- 
tian faith, kingly honor and truth," faithfully to 
confirm and preserve the Decree of the Council of 
Uppsala. Otherwise Sigismund would not have 
been elected. There is still preserved in the ar- 
chives of Rome a letter written by the papal 
legate, setting forth that the king had declared 
to him that he had sworn to this royal declaration 
through compulsion, and against his own will, and 
that on this account the legate had released him 
from his oath and permitted him to take a new 
oath, declaring faithful allegiance to the Jesuits. 

Sigismund having very soon broken his royal 
oath and assurance to maintain the Decree of the 
Council of Uppsala, the Swedes deposed him in 
1599 and elected Duke Charles as their king, who 
reigned till 1611. Sweden was thus finally wrested 
from the pope's power and saved from the pitiful 



86 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

fate that befell Poland. Gustavus Adolphus, the 
son of King Charles IX., and the sons of the men 
who signed the Decree of the Council of Uppsala, 
took up the battle against the Roman Catholic 
menace during the Thirty Years' War, and 
through them God protected the Protestant 
churches from popish tyranny and superstition. 
The Council of Uppsala, therefore, has a signifi- 
cant bearing upon the history of the world. 

Many of the members of the Council were true 
heroes of faith, and foremost among them may 
be placed Nicolaus (or Nils) Olavi, with the sur- 
name Bothniensis, from his native province of 
Norrbotten, or Bothnia. As president of the 
Council he showed both zeal and moderation, and 
his prudent guidance contributed greatly to the 
success of the Council's transactions. His loyalty 
to his country and his faithful adherence to the 
unfalsified Lutheran faith, as well as his gentle- 
ness, manliness, and steadfastness, were made 
manifest in the subsequent perilous times during 
the conflicts between King Sigismund and Duke 
Charles. When the University of Uppsala was 
restored, he was chosen dean of its theological 
faculty. He lectured on Old and New Testament 
exegesis, and was the author of the first Hebrew 
grammar published in Sweden. After the deposi- 
tion of Abraham Angcrmannus, Olavi was elected 



THE REFORMATION PERIOD IN THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN 87 

his successor, but dying soon afterwards (1600), 
was not installed in that office. On his deathbed 
he admonished the clergy to beware of both popish 
and Calvinistic errors. He thanked God for His 
unmerited goodness toward him, for his education 
in the pure evangelical faith, and for the privilege 
of having participated in the sufferings of the 
Saviour. Having received absolution and the 
Lord's Supper, this man of God departed in the 
peace of Christ, testifying to the friends gathered 
around in him : "I believe that I shall see the good- 
ness of the Lord in the land of the living." 

Olavus Martini, who was one of the two secre- 
taries at the Council of Uppsala, became Nicolaus' 
successor as archbishop. In this office he proved 
to be a man of the same true Christian spirit in 
his gentle but steadfast opposition to King Charles 
and his Calvinistic ideas. From his peaceful 
deathbed, in 1609, Olavus Martini also spoke 
words of edification and encouraged his friends 
to remain steadfast in the true faith. 

The Decree of the Council of Uppsala was in 
1686 incorporated in the First section of the 
Swedish Church Law, and in 1809 also in the 
Second section of the Form of Government, one 
of the fundamental laws of Sweden. Jubilee 
anniversaries of the Council were celebrated 
with great festivities in 1693, 1793, and 1893, 



88 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

the congregations of the Lutheran Augustana 
Synod joining in the three hundredth anniversary. 
The Evangelical Lutheran faith, solemnly and 
unanimously confessed at the memorable Council 
of Uppsala, has been the guiding star for the 
blessed course of our dear Lutheran Augustana 
Synod during its whole existence. ' May our 
glorious Unaltered Augsburg Confession, as it is 
understood according to the development found 
in the other Symbolical books of the Lutheran 
Church, by the help of God, be forever the con- 
necting bond between the mother church in Swe- 
den and her daughter church in America, the 
Augustana Synod. 





GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN FROM THE 
REFORMATION PERIOD TO THE NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY. 



VI. King Gustavus Adolphus and his 
Court Chaplains. 

Gustaf Adolf, Christ und Held, 

Rettete bei Breientfeld 

Glaubensfreiheit fur die Welt. 

(Gustavus Adolphus, the Christian Hero, 

At Breitenfeld saved 

Liberty of faith to all the world.) 

|HESE are the words engraved on the 
Gustavus Adolphus monument at Brei- 
tenfeld, and the inscription remains a 
lasting truth. It was at Breitenfeld, 
just outside of Leipzig, that Gustavus Adolphus, 
the Swedish king, on the seventh of September, 
1631, encountered the imperial Catholic army, and 
there God bestowed on his people a glorious vic- 
tory over the enemies of the gospel. Standing in 
front of his valiant and faithful army, the king 

Life Pictures. 7. 




92 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

its stamp on his warriors, who constantly endeav- 
ored to reserpble the noble king in piety and other 
virtues. Every morning and evening, and before 
every battle, public common prayer was offered 
to God, and on Sundays public divine service was 
held in the Swedish army. Strict discipline was 
maintained. Plunder and debauchery, so common 
in the savage imperial hordes, were severely for- 
bidden in the Swedish army. A contemporary 
Nuremberg chronicle says of the Swedish war- 
riors: "They were not heard to swear; rudeness 
and vices were not to be found among them, even 
if they became intoxicated. The piety of the sol- 
diers was like that of the king ; in their conversa- 
tion the name of God was mentioned, and His help 
was invoked as the warrior's best protection. It 
seems incredible to those who have not seen it 
with their own eyes." There was also a saying 
among the Germans concerning the military dis- 
cipline of King Gustavus Adolphus, that "in his 
army a person might become saved but not rich." 
These are not loose assertions, but well-known 
historical facts. Hence, to the glory of God, the 
character of Gustavus Adolphus appears to us as 
that of a true Christian hero. He was a great 
general, a prudent statesman, and a warm patriot ; 
but above all he was the believing Christian hero. 
During the wars conducted by this "Lion of the 





HAQUIN SPEGEL. 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 93 

North" he never neglected to promote schools and 
Christian education, sciences and arts. He cher- 
ished the Uppsala university and promoted it in 
many ways, even donating to it his own hereditary 
estates, consisting of 313 farms. Sweden has 
lost the provinces conquered by him, but Uppsala 
university, and several colleges founded during his 
reign, remain as glorious monuments to his name. 

Gustavus Adolphus was himself a devoted and 
steadfast Lutheran, but he knew how to unite 
Lutheran and Reformed princes against their 
common papal foe. In the execution of his great 
plans he made use of many valued friend and 
assistants, most prominent among whom was his 
chancellor, Axel Oxentierna, bound to the king by 
an intimate friendship which was never disturbed 
by discord or envy. Gustavus Adolphus was not 
led by a vain desire of honor nor by political ambi- 
tion to enter Germany and participate in its great 
religious war, and amidst his glorious triumphs 
the imperial crown did not lure him. He awaited 
the appointed time; then God sent him forth to 
save evangelical Protestantism from being over- 
come by fraud and outrage. This Christian hero 
fought a good fight, finished his course, and kept 
the faith, and the Lord has blessed his memory 
for all time. 

How did Gustavus Adolphus acquire such a 



94 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

truly Christian character? His father, King 
Charles IX., was an energetic and conscientious 
man, but often severe and suspicious ; so was also 
his mother. About the education of his royal 
friend, Axel Oxenstierna wrote that he "was 
reared rigorously and trained in labor, virtue and 
courage." In this manner Gustavus Adolphus cer- 
tainly became accustomed from his youth to a 
simple manner of living, so that he could share 
the conditions of his humblest soldiers; but his 
noble, lovable and entirely evangelical Lutheran 
character cannot be called a heritage from his 
parents. Nay, it was born and nourished by the 
means of grace, a true conversion, and a faithful 
use of prayer and the Word of God. 

The birth of an illegitimate son had attested 
the young king's sin and shame, and for this he 
received, to the lasting benefit of his soul and 
character, the stern reproof of his court chaplain, 
John Rudbeckius, who told him that he had 
aroused the anger of God and admonished him to 
do penance. How sincere and faithful a court 
chaplain Rudbeckius was, may be gathered from 
the following utterance in one of his sermons: 
"If any evil, which God forbid, should by my 
negligence happen to your Majesty, Almighty God 
would crave the penalty out of my hands, and I 
must give account for it, otherwise I would not 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 95 

be your Majesty's faithful teacher and pastor, but 
an hireling." Gustavus Adolphus himself not only 
participated with his soldiers in public divine 
services, but he daily read the Bible in private. 
To a courtier who unexpectedly appeared and saw 
him reading the Bible, the king said that by medi- 
tation upon the Word of God he tried to strength- 
en himself against evil temptations, against which 
we never can be sufficiently on our guard. 

John Rudbeckius studied at Wittenberg, and 
was professor at Uppsala for eleven years, after- 
wards court chaplain 1613 — 1618, and bishop of 
Vasteras from 1618 to his death in 1646. It may 
suffice to add the description which this Christian 
knight himself has given of his participation in 
the king's campaign in the Baltic provinces: 
"Sometimes I had to be on horseback the whole 
day, in rain and chilly winds, and nevertheless 
preach ; sometimes by sea in tempest and roaring 
surf; sometimes by land in campaigns and mili- 
tary turmoil ; sometimes to hear the drum or the 
guns or alarms sounded in the midst of a sermon 
or while preparing for preaching. I had to act, 
however, as the occasion demanded." As bishop, 
he urged and defended the rights of the Church 
against the encroachments of the state, and Oxen- 
stierna said of Rudbeckius that he had "a piece 
of St. Peter's mantle." 



96 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

John Botvidi, who died in 1635 as bishop of Lin- 
koping, was, from 1616 on, confessor and court 
chaplain of Gustavus Adolphus and as such exer- 
cised a deep influence on the spiritual life of the 
king. Among the many sermons published by 
him may be mentioned his Six Sermons on the 
53rd Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah, and Six Ser- 
mons on the 22nd Psalm of David. The following 
narrative is characteristic of the king and his 
court chaplain: "During the battle of Kleve, in 
Prussia, the king was aware that Dr. Botvidi and 
several army chaplains were standing on a moun- 
tain with uplifted hands, beseeching God for the 
victory which was subsequently gained. In. the 
evening the king said to Botvidi : "To-day it was 
not hard for us to fight, beca.use Moses fought for 
us in prayer on the mountain/' 

Rudbeckius and Botvidi were translators of the 
Bible and members of a committee appointed to 
edit the revised Swedish translation of the Bible 
known as the Gustavus Adolphus Bible, published 
in 1618. Both of them preached the Word of God 
without affectation or sentimentality but in truth 
and earnestness. Both were called upon to preach 
funeral sermons at the burial of Gustavus 
Adolphus. 

John Mathiae became professor at Uppsala uni- 
versity in 1620, court chaplain in 1629. instructor 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 97 

of Princess (afterwards Queen) Christina in 1632, 
and bishop of Strangnas in 1643. Having been 
accused of favoring a union of Christian denomi- 
nations, he was deposed in 1664; he died in 1670. 
In his published sermons he shows himself a good 
Lutheran preacher, and more peace-loving than 
Rudbeckius and Botvidi. In his sermon on Palm 
Sunday Mathise thus preaches the pure Biblical 
and Lutheran doctrine concerning the Lord's Sup- 
per, and he exhorts his hearers to pray to God 
with steadfast faith that, for the sake of the bitter 
sufferings and death of Jesus, He would be gra- 
cious toward us and forgive us all our sins. Con- 
fidence in God, persistence in prayer, and the re- 
membrance of the death of Christ, when we com- 
mune in the Holy Supper, he continues, makes us 
patient under the cross and fearless in the night 
of death. 

Isaac Rothovius was a third contemporary court 
chaplain. Having been the instructor of Axel 
Oxenstierna, he was elected bishop of Abo and 
died as such in 1652. By his instrumentality a 
school was founded in Abo, which in 1640 was 
transformed into a university. He took part in 
translating the Bible into Finnish. In his inaugu- 
ral address to the Finns he says : "We must hold 
fast to this truth, that religious instruction is the 
sole means by which we can prepare the young, 




VII. Haquin Spegel Jesper Svedberg and 
Anders Nohrborg. 

[URING the period from the reign of 
Gustavus Adolphus to the death of 
Charles XII. (1611—1718), Sweden 
was one of the great European powers. 
In 1707 King Charles XII., the young hero, com- 
pelled the Austrian Emperor, Joseph I., to grant 
religious liberty to the oppressed Lutherans in 
Silesia, and there King Charles' name is still 
reverenced and kept in thankful memory. When 
the pope instructed his legate in Vienna to com- 
plain of this permission, the emperor replied, "It 
was a fortunate thing, that King Charles did not 
require that I myself should become a Lutheran, 
for truly I do not know what I should have an- 
swered him." During these hundred years the 
Swedish Church was strongly orthodox and had 
many true and excellent bishops and faithful pas- 
tors. Prominent among such pious fathers were 
Archbishop Haquin Spegel and Bishop Jesper 
Svedberg. 





JESPER SVEDBERG. 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 101 

During the eighteenth century the Established 
Church of Sweden, as well as the other Protestant 
churches, was infected by naturalism and ration- 
alism, which emanated mostly from the royal 
court, then under French influence. Although 
the Swedish Church had several good bishops 
during this period of decline, yet we find among 
its faithful pastors some of the best exemplars of 
the true life in Christ. Anders Nohrborg, repre- 
senting the old orthodoxy, was one among many 
of these pastors, spiritual leaders, and, in the best 
sense, popular preachers. 

Haquin Spegel and Jesper Svedberg have been 
called "the twin stars on the firmament of the 
Church of Sweden." Their names are familiar to 
all persons acquainted with the Swedish Psalm- 
book, the name of Spegel being affixed to twenty- 
nine psalms, and that of Svedberg to no less than 
forty psalms. Besides being capable officials of 
the Church of Sweden, they deserved well of that 
Church, being numbered among its best preach- 
ers, catechists, and authors of spiritual hymns. 

Spegel was born in 1646, at Ronneby, in Ble- 
kinge, then a Danish possession, which became a 
Swedish province in 1658. He was matriculated 
as a student at the newly founded university of 
Lund. After some years of study at foreign uni- 
versities, he took his degree in Philosophy at Lund 



102 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

in 1670. In 1675 he was appointed court preacher 
to King Charles XL, as such exercising a great 
moral and spiritual influence over the young king, 
especially during the campaign in Skane. After- 
wards he was called to the superintendency of 
Gotland, where he succeeded remarkably well in 
introducing the Swedish language and liturgy. 
Having been made bishop of Skara in 1685 and of 
Linkoping in 1691, he became archbishop in 1711, 
and died at Uppsala in 1714. 

In these various positions Spegel was a divinely 
blessed instrument in promoting the religious and 
spiritual welfare of his countrymen. And the 
reasons for such success were undoubtedly his 
personal qualifications, sustained by the unlimited 
confidence placed in him by King Charles XL, who 
reigned as absolute monarch over Sweden. Dur- 
ing his reign (1660 — 1697) a new Church Law 
was enacted and a new Church Book adopted, both 
having been shaped under the good influence of 
Bishop Spegel, who is, however, best known as a 
hymn writer, preacher and catechist. 

Spegel's principal work is The Swedish Psalm 
book of 1695, now known as the Old Swedish 
Psalm book. It contained 56 psalms by Spegel, 
30 of which are original and 26 translated or 
adapted from other hymn writers. He excels as 
an original divine singer, and his psalms in the 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 103 

present Swedish Psalm book, such as the Easter 
hymns, Nos. 110 and 111, the Communion hymn, 
No. 154 (No. 222 in the Hymnal of the Augustana 
Synod), and the Morning hymn, No. 430, must be 
reckoned among the most precious jewels of all 
Christian hymnody. 

SpegePs hymns are all characterized by his 
confident and soundly Lutheran trust in the merits 
of Christ. A distinctive feature of his hymns is 
their Biblical and popular style. They are born 
of a hopeful and manly spirit, yet free from self- 
intruding subjectivism and sensationalism. Spe- 
gel and Paul Gerhardt have a common trait in 
their predilection for the Psalms of David. Thus 
twenty-five hymns in the Old Swedish Psalm book 
are paraphrases from the psalter. Gerhardt un- 
doubtedly holds the highest place among the Ger- 
man paraphrasers of the Psalms of David, but 
Spegel, it seems to us, excelled him, not only in 
exegetical skill, but also in poetical talent; as 
instanced in the beautiful hymn No. 325 in the 
present Swedish Psalm book, based on the eighty- 
fourth Psalm of David. 

As a catechist Spegel's name is connected with 
a proposed catechism of 1686, which in reality 
was the work of a committee, made up in great 
hurry during parliamentary sessions. This cate- 
chism, although never officially authorized, was 



104 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

the foundation for the official catechism of Arch- 
bishop Svebilius in 1689, just as Bishop Jesper 
Svedberg's Psalm book of 1694 prepared the way 
for that of Spegel in 1695. But as catechist 
Spegel is better known by reason of his persistent 
endeavors to have all the Swedish people duly 
instructed in the Christian doctrine. It is to his 
personal and official influence that the common 
parish schools in Sweden owe their origin, through 
an ecclesiastical statute providing that religious 
instruction should be given the young people be- 
fore their first admission to the holy communion. 

Spegel was an eloquent preacher, and as such 
acquired his reputation and became attached to 
the royal court. As bishop he was zealous in his 
endeavor to have the pure gospel of Christ 
preached in his dioceses. 

Besides some occasional sermons, including 
funeral addresses, Spegel wrote a collection of 
"Thirty Sermons on the Precious and Innocent 
Passion and Suffering of our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ." These sermons, delivered before 
the royal court in Stockholm, were published after 
his death. Judged by these Passion Sermons, 
Spegel must be considered one of the foremost 
representatives of sacred eloquence in his day. 
Sound and exact in his exposition of his texts, he 
sets forth the saving truths objectively, in their 




AXDERS XOHPvBORG. 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 105 

full Biblical form, contrary to the ruling formal- 
ism of his time. He is, however, not entirely free 
from the common fault of his contemporaries, 
that of learned display ; for in his sermons Spegel 
employs illustrations from Church History rather 
to excess. Nevertheless, in the sermons of Spegel 
we always meet the faithful pastor, trying by 
practical applications to make the instruction, 
the admonitions and promises of the Holy Scrip- 
tures, fruitful to his hearers. He preached Christ 
crucified and is aglow with the love of God and 
hearty zeal for the salvation of his fellow men. 
Alike in his sermons and in his hymns, we find 
Spegel characterized by an earnestness and a 
poetical inspiration akin to that of the holy 
prophets and psalmists of Israel. 

Jesper Svedberg was born 1653, in the vicinity 
of Falun, Dalarne. He studied first at the uni- 
versity of Uppsala and afterwards at that of Lund. 
Returning to Uppsala after five years of study at 
Lund, he was promoted Doctor of Philosophy in 
1682 and ordained the following year. Having 
visited England, France, Holland, and Germany, 
he became at first army chaplain and court 
preacher, and afterwards, in 1692, professor of 
theology at the university of Uppsala. In 1702 
he was made bishop of Skara, where he died in 
1735. 

Life Pictures. 8. 



106 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

Archbishop Spegel was a Biblical, orthodox 
Lutheran; Bishop Svedberg was an evangelical 
Lutheran pietist. Svedberg once prayed, "0 my 
God, who raised up Luther and bestowed upon 
him Thy spirit of boldness to introduce again the 
Christian and most needed doctrine of the true 
faith, raise up again a Luther, who with the same 
boldness and blessed energy will again introduce 
a Christian life." During his travels in England 
he received strong impressions from its strict 
Sabbath observance and its well-ordered relief of 
the poor, and in spite of the spiritual and moral 
decline in France he could not but admire the 
charitable works of the Roman Catholic Church, 
while in Holland the prevalent frugality and sense 
of order especially aroused his admiration. In 
Germany he sojourned with Dr. Ebzardus in 
Hamburg, the learned orientalist, who, zealous 
for the conversion of the Jews and the heathen, 
aroused Svedberg to a consciousness of the Chris- 
tian's duty toward the heathen and especially the 
obligation of the Swedes to provide for the spir- 
itual needs of their countrymen settled among 
the Indians in North America. 

Jesper Svedberg was an earnest pietist akin to 
John Arndt and Christian Scriver, but he had 
by nature also a peculiar mystical character akin 
to that of Birgitta, the Swedish seeress. He be- 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 107 

lieved that the spirits influence human destinies, 
and it seems that he was ready, without reflection, 
to credit strange narratives about visions and 
revelations. Incredible, for instance, seems the 
event which is said to have occurred, when Sved- 
berg preached for the first time. It was at Hoby, 
Skane, in 1673, on the Third Sunday after Trinity, 
the gospel text being Luke 15: 1 — 10. Of this 
occasion Svedberg writes in his autobiography : 

"In the evening of the same day there was 
heard in the church much music and clear voices 
singing pious psalms, although there was within 
the church no organ or other instrument, and no 
human being. Thus narrated and testified unani- 
mously all the inhabitants of the village, which is 
very large and lies very near to the church." 
This supposed occurrence was to Svedberg an ef- 
ficacious admonition to preach with sacred fear 
in the house of the Lord, " where God's holy angels 
are present." He took the occurrence as a sign 
that God would use him and bless his testimony 
of the rich salvation by Jesus Christ. Svedberg 
writes further: "Who knows but that by God's 
gracious help some sinner may that day have been 
converted by my simple sermon." This Sunday 
of the Church year was always specially observed 
by Svedberg, who called that day "The great sin- 
ners' great festival." 



108 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

As court preacher to King Charles XI., who 
reigned from 1660 to 1695, Svedberg by his sin- 
cerity soon gained the confidence of the young 
king. Nor did he lose it by the intrigues of vari- 
ous persons he had candidly reproved. Once the 
king told him in a conversation, "You have many 
enemies/' Svedberg answered, "Your Majesty, a 
servant of the Lord is not worth anything, if he 
has no enemies. Consider the prophets and the 
apostles, yea, the Christ himself. How many ene- 
mies did not they have?" 

Because many different psalm books were then 
used in the Swedish Church, Jesper Svedberg, to- 
gether with his friends, undertook to edit a new 
one for common use in the Church. In this com- 
mission, afterwards authorized by the king, Sved- 
berg was the most active member, and of the 482 
psalms in their proposed book he wrote 16, trans- 
lated 20, and revised a great number. When the 
new book was published in 1694, it was severely 
criticised and immediately confiscated, to the great 
financial loss of Svedberg. Our present Swedish 
Psalm book has 6 original and 14 translated hymns 
of Svedberg' s from his proposed book. The beau- 
tiful hymns No. 35 and 36 in our present Psalm 
book, concerning the angels, are very character- 
istic of Svedberg. They were translated by him 
from German sources. 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. 109 

Svedberg published several collections of his 
sermons, of which the largest and best are, one on 
the gospel texts of the Church year and one on the 
epistle texts. His sermons are truly evangelical 
and have a practical bent, urging the hearers to 
be not only confessors, but also followers of Christ. 
In a publication entitled, "David and Nathan," 
Bishop Svedberg presented his homiletical max- 
ims, not so much in the form as in the contents of 
the sermons. Here he admonishes the pastors to 
appear, like Nathan before David, as witnesses of 
the truth, with boldness and without fear of men ; 
to uncover and reprove unsparingly prevailing sin 
in the community, and to let their preaching be 
reflected in their own lives and conduct. 

In America the memory of Bishop Svedberg 
should be cherished for his care of the Swedish 
Lutheran churches on the Delaware river, where 
in 1638 the colony of New Sweden had been 
founded. Torkillus and John Campanius were 
the first pastors of the colony and the first Lu- 
theran ministers in America. Campanius did 
mission work among the Delaware Indians, trans- 
lated Luther's Small Catechism for these Indians, 
and built a frame church at Tinicum, some miles 
southwest of Philadelphia. This church, conse- 
crated in 1646, was the first Lutheran church in 
America. For about half a century it was used 



110 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

by the Swedish colonists for divine worship. But 
the colony came first under Dutch, and in 1664 
under English, dominion ; and when the old, blind 
Dutch minister Jacob Fabritius passed away, in 
1695, the Swedish Lutheran congregations no 
longer had a pastor. In their spiritual distress 
they addressed themselves to King Charles XI. in 
the following petition: "We beg that there may 
be sent to us two Swedish ministers, who are well 
learned and well exercised in the Holy Scriptures, 
and who may defend both themselves and us 
against all the false teachers and strange sects, 
by whom we are surrounded, or who may oppose 
us on account of our true, pure, and uncorrupted 
service to God and the Lutheran religion, which 
we shall confess before God and all the world, 
so that, if it should so happen, which, however, 
may God avert, — we are ready to seal this with 
our own blood." The king consulted with Sved- 
berg, and after some hesitation and delay the 
matter was entrusted to Archbishop Svebilius. 
But he was old and sickly, therefore the care of 
the Delaware churches was laid upon Svedberg, 
then a professor at Uppsala university. 

Svedberg selected Andrew Rudman and Erik 
Bjork as pastors for the Swedish churches in 
America. Both accepted the call and in 1697 
arrived at their destination, bringing with them 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY. Ill 

Rev. Jonas Auren as their assistant. They also 
brought 30 Bibles, 100 copies of Svedberg's con- 
fiscated psalm book, 100 of Svebilius , catechisms, 
and 500 copies of Rev. John Campanius' Indian 
Catechism. Rudman became pastor of the con- 
gregation at Wicaco, where the Gloria Dei church 
was built and dedicated in 1700, while Bjork be- 
came pastor of the congregation in Wilmington, 
which built "Heliga Trefaldighetskyrkan" (Holy 
Trinity Church), now better known as "Old 
Swedes' Church," which was dedicated on the 
Sunday of the Holy Trinity, the fourth of July, 
1699. Both of these churches together with sev- 
eral others in the old Delaware colony have un- 
fortunately fallen into the hands of the Episco- 
palians, and Dr. C. C. Tiffany, in his History of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, correctly says: 
"What the Swedes sowed, was reaped by the 
Episcopalians." 

As bishop of Skara, Svedberg until his death 
continued to superintend the Swedish Lutheran 
churches on the Delaware, sending ministers, 
books, and pastoral letters to them, thus winning 
their hearty gratitude and love. He was also en- 
trusted with the episcopal care of the Swedish 
congregations in London and Lisbon. In the in- 
terest of the Swedish-American congregations 
Svedberg published "En gudelig Barna Cateches 



112 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

till ungdomens tjenst i de Svenska forsamlingarne 
i Pensylvanien, sammanskrifven af thess Biskop," 
and also, in 1732, "America Illuminata, skrifven 
och utgifven af thess Biskop, Dr. J. Svedberg." 
(America Illuminata, written and published by 
its Bishop, Dr. J. Svedberg.) 

With all his orthodoxy and pietism, Svedberg 
was of a true catholic mind, having at the same 
time a keen eye to the peculiarities of different 
nationalities. With native simplicity he says in 
his "Schiboleth" (a book about the correct use of 
the Swedish language) : "When God shall be all 
in all, then shall all that is in part, childish and 
imperfect, discontinue. But there everything will 
be manly and perfect. And there shall all sing 
with one tongue, as this or that saint or holy angel 
of God begins the song." He says further, that 
when with Abraham we have sung a Hebrew 
hymn, with St. Paul a Greek, and with Ambrose 
a Latin hymn, "then they together with us Swedes 
will sing in Swedish: "Dig vare lof och pris, O 
Christ!" or: "Nu tacken Gud allt folk" ("Now 
thank we all our God"). 

Anders Nohrborg was born in 1725 at Norberg, 
Vastmanland, where his father, Olof Nohrborg, 
was acting pastor. Anders Nohrborg graduated 
at Uppsala university as Doctor of Philosophy in 
1752, was ordained to the ministry in 1754, and 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY 113 

served the Finnish church in Stockholm as as- 
sistant pastor until 1765, when he was appointed 
assistant court chaplain, an office he retained until 
his death, which occurred at Folkerna, Dalarne. 
Although a sufferer from consumption he was a 
powerful preacher at the royal court, and one of 
the bishops said of him : "This court chaplain has 
a preacher in his breast preaching seriously to 
him, and he to us." 

Nohrborg is best known as the author of the 
truly edifying and instructive postil, "Den fallna 
manniskans salighetsordning" (The Way of Salva- 
tion for Fallen Man). This work, published in 
1771 in large quarto, by his brother Daniel, is 
now in its seventeenth edition. Some of these 
editions have been printed in from 4,000 to 6,000 
copies. Nohrborg's postil is found in many 
Swedish-American homes. It has been translated 
into the Norwegian and Finnish languages. The 
work rightly deserves such general popularity and 
confidence, for it is strictly orthodox, systematic 
and yet popular in style, setting forth the Lu- 
theran doctrine of sin and grace, of Christ and 
His merits, of repentance and faith, of justifica- 
tion and sanctification, of the Christian duties and 
their fulfillment, and of temporal sufferings and 
final glorification. Nohrborg's sermons are the- 
matic and Scriptural, though they do not offer a 



114 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

detailed exposition of the gospel text under con- 
sideration. In the postil they are arranged in the 
order of the way of salvation and not in the usual 
order according to the Church year. 

Instead of a presentation of extracts from 
Nohrborg's sermons, or of some details from his 
biography, it may suffice here to give a few of his 
utterances on his deathbed, as told in the preface 
to Nohrborg's postil, written by Dr. Gabriel Ro- 
sen, court chaplain. These utterances give us a 
true insight into the spiritual life of Nohrborg 
and an earnest testimony of salvation through 
Christ Jesus. 

Pastor A. Nohrborg's health was not the very 
best during his last years. In the summer of 
1767, suffering from severe hemorrhages, he came 
to live with his brother-in-law, Bengt Gustrin, 
acting pastor at Husby, where he received the 
tenderest care from his relatives. On one occa- 
sion a few days before his death, Nohrborg, 
thinking himself alone in the bedroom, although 
two of his nearest relatives were present, raised 
himself up and began to cry for joy and with a 
loud voice praise his Saviour for His infinite love. 
He believed he could no longer endure to enjoy 
that love in his feebly body, said he. When his 
relatives stepped forth, asking him how he was, 
he answered: "Do not forget to preach and pro- 



FROM THE REFORMATION TO THE XIX. CENTURY 115 

claim, without ceasing, the great power of Jesus, 
which enables me poor sinner to lie here and see 
death before me, yea, very soon to overtake me, 
without feeling the least fear and anguish, but 
with a heart filled with trust and fortitude." 

Shortly before his death Nohrborg received the 
Lord's Supper, and in answer to preliminary ques- 
tions, he said : "As a malefactor, I am resting on 
the rock of Christ. Let the spiritual enemies hurl 
their arrows as they will, I hold fast to my Sav- 
iour, and will never yield." When a certain vis- 
itor praised him for his pious and quiet life, he 
said: "What talk is that? Do not come and ob- 
scure Jesus from me. My works I throw behind 
me, but my face is turned to Jesus alone." 




THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE 
NINETEENTH CENTURY, 




VIII. Johan Olof Wallin and Henrik 
Schartau. 

IRCHBISHOP JOHAN OLOF WALLIN 

was the greatest and most spiritual 
hymnist of the Church of Sweden in 
the nineteenth century. He was a noted 
preacher, a famous orator, who appeared on many 
solemn occasions, a noble philanthropist, and an 
influential and highly honored churchman. Wal- 
lin's psalms give character to the present Swedish 
Psalm book, and many of them will certainly be 
cherished as the most beautiful pearls in all re- 
vised editions of this book. Beautifully does the 
renowned poet, Bishop Esaias Tegner, in his great 
poem "The Children of the Lord's Supper" thus 

allude to Wallin and his psalms : 

"and with one voice 
Chimed in the congregation, and sang an anthem immortal 
Of the sublime Wallin, of David's harp in the North-land. " 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 117 

Johan Olof Wallin was born in 1779, at Stora 
Tuna, Dalarne. In spite of illness and poverty, 
he was able to pursue studies at Falun and Vas- 
teras, and received the degree of Doctor of Phil- 
osophy at Uppsala in 1803. He was ordained to 
the ministry in 1806; served as acting professor 
at Carlberg, and as pastor at Solna ; received the 
degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1809; became a 
member of the Swedish Academy in 1810 ; dean of 
Vasteras, 1816; pastor primarius of Stockholm, 
1818; and was archbishop of Sweden from 1837 
until his death in 1839. 

Of his many preferments Wallin himself said: 
"My stay at Carlberg was the happiest time of 
my life. Afterwards came success, and the days 
of joy were gone/' One of the reasons for his lack 
of happiness was the precipitate breaking of an 
engagement to a charming young lady and his 
marriage soon after to another lady, the daughter 
of a rich manufacturer. There was in his personal 
makeup a marked disharmony owing partly to 
temperament but still more to the prevailing 
struggle between dominant rationalism and rising 
orthodoxy. Longing for eternal rest, Wallin seems 
to have found comfort in hard and steady work, 
and, to the strains of his divinely attuned harp, 
hopefully he sang: 



118 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

"O my soul, thy wing ascending, 
Yet on Salem's mount shall rest; 
There, where cherub harps are blending 
With the singing of the blest, 
Let thy note of praise and prayer 
To thy God precede thee there, 
While e'en yet a care-worn mortal 
Still without thy Father's portal." 

(J. 0. Wallin, Augustana Hymnal, No. 158: 4.) 

Immediately after coming home from the death- 
bed of Wallin, his intimate friend, Professor 
Erik Gustaf Geijer, the Swedish historian, wrote 
about him : "A light is extinguished in the king- 
dom of Sweden; but a restless, perhaps too rest- 
less, heart has found eternal rest. He is happy." 

Let us all thank God for the great part Wallin 
has taken in the formation of our present Psalm 
book. As a substitute for the old Psalm book of 
1695 there appeared at the Centennial Jubilee of 
1793 a "Collection of Sacred Hymns for the Swe- 
dish Church," and at the same festival, according 
to the expressed wish of the clergy, a committee 
was elected to edit a new collection of church 
hymns for that purpose. The clerical division of 
parliament in 1809 gave a new Catechism and a 
new Book of Worship to the Swedish Church and 
also desired to present a new hymn book on proba- 
tion. Under the guidance of God the latter proj- 
ect was prevented by Wallin, on the plea that a 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 119 

number of the hymns were rationalistic and of no 
poetic merit, the committee having adopted some 
of his own hymns without his consent or approval. 
He was even then recognized as a master of secu- 
lar poetry. In 1807 he had begun to publish col- 
lections of new and old hymns, the latter revised. 
Wallin was afterwards commissioned to edit a 
new collection of psalms, which was first pub- 
lished in 1816, and, after having been revised by 
him, was adopted by the clerical members of the 
parliament in 1818. This collection authorized in 
1819 by the king, is the present Psalm book of the 
Church of Sweden. 

The Swedish Psalm book of 1819 is chiefly the 
work of Wallin. Of its 500 psalms 128 are origi- 
nal with him, 23 are translated and 200 are old 
psalms revised by him. It is a deplorable fact 
that our Hymnal has only seven of Wallin's own 
psalms. Who will enrich our Synod by adding 
others? Provost Henrik Schartau, a very con- 
scientious and strict dogmatical critic of the 
Swedish Psalm book, has divided its new psalms 
into five different groups according to their con- 
tents and inner value. In the foremost group, 
consisting of 33 psalms, which in his opinion 
"bear witness of Biblical insight and a vocation 
for sacred poetry," he places the following psalms 
of Wallin, numbers 131, 139, 145, 153, 159, 184, 



120 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

199, 210, 212, 224, 237, 300, 326, 357, 421, 
432 and 495. To the same group ought certainly 
to be reckoned the following original psalms of 
Wallin, numbers 55, 56, 68, 172, 285, 415, and 
484. It has been justly said that old hymns revised 
by Wallin are improved in almost every instance. 
This is notably the case with numbers, 51, 52, 60, 
76, 77, 84, 107, 123, 138, 152, 154, 160, 167, 192, 
etc., and especially No. 124. 

J. O. Wallin had several congenial and active 
fellow-laborers who contributed to the completion 
of his psalm book by their own original psalms 
and by criticising and remodeling old as well as 
new ones. Prominent among them were: F. M. 
Franzen (fl847), by a fellow poet styled "the 
sweetest singer of the Northland." He was born 
and educated in Finland, and was chosen bishop 
of Hernosand in 1834. Franzen is the author of 
23 truly excellent psalms (six of which are to be 
found in our Hymnal) . E. G. Geijer (f 1847) con- 
tributed 8 original psalms to the new psalm book ; 
and S. J. Hedborn (fl849), pastor at Askeryd in 
the diocese of Linkoping, contributed 6 original 
psalms : No. 3, 69, 158, 243, 362, and 407. 

Our Swedish Psalm book has been very highly 
esteemed and praised by eminent German hymnog- 
raphers. Dr. Mohnike in his "Hymnologische 
Forschungen" says: "This is undoubtedly the 



«</ 




7 



JOHAX OLOF WALLIN. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 121 

most excellent psalm book in the whole Evangeli- 
cal Church, and if translated, it would be the 
Psalm book for all Christian people." This ap- 
preciation is endorsed by Drs. Albert Knapp, 
Philip Wackernagel, and others. Dr. Knapp adds : 
"The Biblical contents are clothed in the most 
beautiful language, and Evangelical Germany has 
nothing like it." It must, however, be conceded 
that not all the psalms have equal spiritual and 
poetical value, and that revisions have been and 
are now necessary. Wallin himself was con- 
scious of this and complained of the fact that he 
was not allowed all the time he needed for ac- 
complishing his work to his full satisfaction. 
Quite a number of old and new Swedish psalms 
are used in the Finnish, the Norwegian and the 
Danish Psalm books, and ten of our original 
Swedish psalms are translated and adapted in 
Paul Kaiser's fine collection, Ein neues Lied 
(Gutersloh, 1902). It is greatly to be regretted 
that only a few of our best Swedish psalms have 
been translated into English and used in English 
Lutheran churches. Dear young friends, do you 
really love our Swedish psalms? In bygone days 
your fathers and mothers have in them found life, 
consolation, joy and spiritual help, and by the 
grace of God they will be helpful to us all. 
Besides his psalms Wallin composed a number 

Life Pictures. 9. 



122 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

of other poems, both sacred and secular. Promi- 
nent among the former is his great poem "The 
Angel of Death," which has been translated into 
English in several versions. This poem, written 
in 1834, during the time of the cholera epidemic 
in Stockholm, begins with the pathetic words: 

"Ye Adam's children, of earth engendered, 
And doomed once more to return to earth, 
To me, to death, are ye all surrendered, 
Since ever sin in the world had birth." 

Wallin was reputed a most powerful and elo- 
quent preacher. Gifted with a fine voice and a 
manly appearance, he made a strong and telling 
appeal to the moral and religious feelings of his 
hearers. But his sermons are not equal to his 
psalms, and he was more of an orator than an 
evangelical pastor. One of his most renowned 
sermons or orations was his address at the first 
meeting of the Swedish Bible Society in 1816, 
when he severely arraigned the infidelity and god- 
lessness of his time. Another and perhaps still 
more celebrated oration was that delivered at the 
consecration of the new cemetery at Stockholm. 
Wallin died June 30, 1839, and was buried in that 
cemetery. About 50,000 people attended the 
burial. 

In all Swedish Lutheran churches is sung on 
Christmas morning Wallin's beautiful psalm: 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 123 

"Var halsad, skona morgonstund" ("All hail to 
thee, blessed morn!" Augustana Hymnal, No. 
13). The third verse is a glorious confession of 
our Saviour, true God and true man : 

He tears, like other men, will shed, 
Our sorrows share, and be our aid, 

Through His eternal power; 
The Lord's good will unto us show 
And mingle in the cup of woe 
The drops of mercy's shower; — 
Dying, 
Buying, 
Through His passion, 
Our salvation, 
And to mortals 
Opening the heavenly portals. 

Henrik Schartau was born in 1757, in the city 
Malmo. In his early youth he lost his parents 
and was, together with seven younger brothers 
and sisters, adopted by an uncle, who paid the 
expenses of his education at the university of 
Lund. At the age of twenty-one he attained the 
degree of Ph. D., and was ordained in 1780. After 
five years of ministerial service in the diocese of 
Kalmar he became second assistant pastor at the 
cathedral of Lund, and eight years later first 
assistant. Being also a rural dean since 1813, he 
continued his life work in this position until his 
peaceful death in 1825. 

His posthumous "Letters" give the following 



124 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

information about Schartau's conversion. His 
childhood and youth were passed at a time when 
rationalism and a frivolous life enveloped the 
Church as a thick cloud. In 1778 he began to 
read the devotional writings of Christian Scriver, 
and was thereby gradually led to study the Bible 
and forsake the vain pleasures of the world. 
Awakened to a spiritual longing for the Lord's 
Holy Supper, Schartau attended a communion 
service, which by the grace of God became the 
turning point in his life, although the preparatory 
sermon was very poor. He felt himself entirely 
lost and damned during the words of the Confes- 
sion: "If Thou shouldst judge according to Thy 
justice and our sins, we have deserved eternal 
condemnation." But during the absolution he re- 
ceived full assurance of the forgiveness of all his 
sins for Christ's sake, "because of the bloody 
atonement of Jesus, as confirmed in the Holy 
Supper, with His atoning blood, shed for us." 
"From that time," says Schartau, "I have by the 
power of God been kept unto salvation, in spite 
of many deviations and much stumbling." 

God's wonderful guidance at his own conver- 
sion may have some connection with his advice 
to anxious souls, that they should implicitly sub- 
mit themselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit 
and not hinder or destroy His work by their 







HENRIK SCHARTAU. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 125 

human interference. This is certainly good ad- 
vice; but it ought not to be used as a cover for 
spiritual indolence and indifference. His own 
wrinkled and pale face bore testimony to the fact 
that Schartau himself had fought many a hard 
spiritual battle. 

His temporary acquaintance with the Herrn- 
huters Schartau characterizes as an aberration; 
and upon discovering that some of their tenets ob- 
viously departed from the truth as revealed in the 
Word of God, he soon left them. When, some time 
afterwards, he examined some sermons written 
by himself during that period, "he was amazed 
at the spiritual emaciation which this delusion 
had brought into his whole method of teaching, 
and he understood that he could not long have 
been kept in a state of grace, had such a condition 
continued in his teaching and in his heart." 

From that time Schartau became a theologian 
of the Biblical school nearest akin to that of A. 
Bengel and M. F. Roos, whom he esteemed very 
highly. Perhaps on account of his own spiritual 
training, he dwelt particularly on the third article 
of the Apostles' Creed. And as a true pastor, 
wishing to be judged by God as "rightly dividing 
the word of truth," he always showed himself 
careful to lead his flock to a true knowledge both 
of themselves and of the grace of God. 



126 LIFE PICTUEES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

In his "Letters" Schartau says : "Sincerity and 
truth are the most necessary qualities in those 
who are sent by God to teach their fellow men." 
Both were characteristic of Schartau himself. 
Sincerity and love of truth were the principal 
traits of his personality, and they made him a 
good and trusted pastor. It may further be said, 
that as these traits were in him united with fine 
dialectic gifts and a dislike for Moravian senti- 
mentalism, he was naturally inclined to cultivate 
intellectual power and suppress the feelings. His 
care of souls was notable not only for its Scrip- 
tural and psychological insight, but also for its 
disdain of foolish tenderness and mere emotion. 

A certain intellectualism, coupled with earnest 
pastoral care, is obvious in Schartau's catechisms, 
of which he has written one for school children 
and two for confirmation classes. The last, that 
of 1804, begins with the following questions and 
answers : "To what purpose should a young person 
in the first place use his understanding when he 
has begun to understand and consider things?" 
"He should learn to know God, who has given 
him understanding and reason." — "Do the young 
thus generally consider what it is to learn to know 
God?" "No, in the first place we learn what is 
useful for this life, and afterwards we turn our 
thoughts to vanity and sin." 



THE CHUECH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 127 

Because of his penetrating power of reasoning, 
his sense of order, and his deep experience in the 
mysteries of the Word of God and of the human 
heart, Schartau was a talented and successful 
catechist. His famous catechizations were held 
in the Lund cathedral every Friday morning at 
eight o'clock, and on these occasions the whole 
spacious chancel was filled with attentive hearers, 
young and old, learned and unlearned, from town 
and country, from the university and the shop. 
Schartau always prepared himself conscientiously 
for this work, and everybody could understand 
his questions, because he used plain language and 
such religious expressions as were derived directly 
from the Bible and the writings of Luther. 

By the grace of God and under the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit the blessed fruit of such faithful 
work soon appeared. Several persons who else- 
where had in vain sought peace with God, re- 
ceived it through the catechetical instruction of 
Schartau. Especially must this have been the 
case with many of his confirmation children, 
among whom he labored with diligence and faith- 
fulness. He did not wish that his catechisms 
should be used for recitations, or that other teach- 
ers should follow his method. Very unfair also 
is the oft-repeated slander that "Schartau minis- 
ters slavishly follow his books." If that has been 



128 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

done by some poor imitators, it is certainly not 
the fault of Schartau. 

Schartau was a diligent and zealous preacher. 
He preached in the cathedral every Sunday and, 
from 1821, every Wednesday morning. During 
the Lenten season he preached on Christ's passion, 
usually twice a week, both in the cathedral and 
in the two rural churches belonging to his charge, 
besides preaching alternately to those congrega- 
tions every Sunday. At first, his evening services 
were sparsely attended, but during the last twenty 
years the great cathedral was filled with attentive 
and devoted hearers. Because Schartau avoided 
all hyper-evangelical extravagances, some of his 
critics have considered his sermons legalistic and 
unable to bring the needed comfort to anxious and 
troubled souls, but on the contrary it must be said 
that his sermons and addresses are evangelical 
testimonies and pastoral directions very helpful 
to souls earnestly seeking their eternal salvation. 
In one of his sermons Schartau has justly said of 
himself: "I have also preached the Law, not that 
any one should be justified by the deeds of the 
Law, nor that I have tried to keep the contrite 
hearts under the threats of the Law; but I have 
preached the Law as a tutor to bring men to 
Christ." 

Schartau preached ex tempore from more or 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 129 

less detailed, but always carefully prepared, ser- 
mon outlines. Most of his extant sermons and 
outlines have been published in several editions, 
and are still diligently read by earnest Christians 
especially in the southern and southwestern prov- 
inces of Sweden. A good English translation of 
Schartau's "Femton predikningar och ett Skrifter- 
malstal" (Fifteen Sermons and one Preparatory 
Address for Communion) would be a highly valu- 
able addition to our homiletical literature. 

A characteristic feature of Schartau's spiritual 
instruction is his constant admonition to his 
friends and hearers that they should shun, not 
only all sins, but all temptations to sin, and there- 
fore avoid all prying religious curiosity and read- 
ing of promiscuous devotional literature. He 
wanted them to read the Bible in its entirety and 
in order, with prayerful attention and diligence. 
The books of M. Luther, J. Arndt, J. A. Bengel, 
M. F. Roos and A. Nohrborg were, however, rec- 
ommended by him to be read besides the Bible. 

As might be expected from reading his Cate- 
chisms and sermons, Schartau was a faithful pas- 
tor. He never neglected to visit the sick, the 
aged, and the poor. His advice was sought by a 
multitude of persons who desired peace for their 
troubled hearts and consciences. In all his min- 
isterial services he was a faithful and wise stew- 



130 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

ard of the Lord, ever giving to His household their 
portion of spiritual food in due season according 
to their different individual states of soul. 

Schartau's "Letters on Spiritual Topics" (Bref 
i andliga amnen) are still a valuable treasury of 
wholesome, discreet counsel and admonition. They 
offer guidance in dealing with troubled con- 
ences, being written confidentially to young 
pastors, students, mechanics, and nearly all kinds 
of people. As an example of the merit of these 
counsels, worthy of being faithfully practiced, we 
quote the following: "Let no man be backward 
when receiving anything from the Lord, but bold- 
ly accept what is being offered. Having received 
something from the Lord, a person should act 
cautiously and not rashly, lest he lose what he has 
received." 

Similar to this advice, and incidentally reveal- 
ing his own personality and general conduct, is 
the following answer given in one of Schartau's 
catechizations : "When a believing Christian, 
aware of the stern and vigorous precepts of the 
Old Testament, has before his eyes the Saviour's 
atonement and justification, as revealed in the 
New Testament, while the Israelites in the Old 
Testament had but a dim view of the promised 
Saviour, he should unite the carefulness, solici- 
tude, and seriousness of the Old Testament with 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 131 

the boldness, liberty, and joy of the New Testa- 
ment/' 

Sincerely attached to the Lutheran Church, the 
friends of Schartau may be called orthodox pie- 
tists. They have never detached themselves from 
the Swedish Church to form groups of their own ; 
on the contrary, they prefer to live and labor in 
the Church, for the Church, and by the means of 
grace given to the Church. 

Trusting in the abounding merit of Jesus 
Christ, Henrik Schartau departed in peace from 
bodily sufferings and many calumnies, which by 
the grace of God he had patiently endured. On 
his tombstone in the old cemetery of Lund are 
engraved the following words, characteristic of 
Schartau as teacher and pastor, Jer. 17 : 16 (ac- 
cording to the Old Swedish Bible translation) : 
"As for me, I have not deserted Thee, my Shep- 
herd, neither have I desired the praise of men; 
Thou knowest that which I have preached is right 
before Thee." 






IX. Carl Olof Rosenius, Peter Wieselgren, 
and Peter Fjellstedt. 

ARL OLOF ROSENIUS, the noted lay 
preacher, deserves to be remembered 
among the teachers of the Swedish 
Church, for he was certainly a chosen 
instrument in the hands of God for bringing about 
the mission movement within that Church from 
the middle of the last century. Many are the souls 
that ascribe their spiritual awakening to his 
preaching or writings. 

Carl Olof Rosenius was born in 1816, at Ny- 
satra, Vasterbotten, where his father, a zealous 
preacher, was assistant pastor. At the age of 
fourteen Rosenius experienced a decisive spiritual 
awakening while reading that excellent book, "The 
Mirror of Faith" (Trosspegel), written by Dr. 
Erik Pontoppidan, the Danish bishop. Especially 
did the following words on the second page imr 
press him deeply: "A man may show great in- 
dustry in his office, great steadfastness in his 
words and deeds; he may know the whole Bible, 




CARL OLOF ROSEXIUS. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 133 

admit and acknowledge its whole contents, cour- 
ageously and faithfully confess the true doctrine, 
yea, even seal it with his own blood, and also, if 
the state of the Church demands it and it is God's 
will, do wonders in the name of Jesus; yet none 
the less go to hell and be destitute of the character- 
istic of the children of God, which is nothing but 
the justifying faith." 

In 1838 Rosenius took his bachelor's degree 
in Uppsala and began to study for the ministry, 
being at the time troubled by the worldliness of 
his fellow students. When in the following year, 
being then a private tutor, he fell into doubts con- 
cerning the divine origin of the Bible, he sought 
comfort from a Methodist preacher in Stockholm 
by the name of George Scott. By his aid Rosenius 
overcame his doubts and he now became lay as- 
sistant to Scott. During the spring and summer 
of 1841, while Scott was traveling in England and 
America, collecting money for his English church 
in Stockholm, Rosenius preached in that church 
on Sunday evenings to the edification of great 
crowds. 

From 1842 until his death Rosenius edited 
"Stockholms Missionstidning," and in the same 
year, together with Scott, he began the publication 
of a monthly periodical called "Pietisten" (The 
Pietist), which soon received some 5,000 sub- 



134 ±JFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

scribers. Reverend Scott's sojourn in Sweden, 
however, did not last long. Excited by an exag- 
gerated report that while in America Scott had 
spoken in derogatory terms of the religious 
and moral conditions in Sweden, on Palm Sunday, 
1842, an angry mob broke into his church and 
drove him from the pulpit. As the police could 
not, or would not, protect him while preaching, 
the English church was closed, and Scott left Swe- 
den. Rosenius then became the sole editor of 
"Pietisten" and leader of "the little flock of awak- 
ened and believing souls" in Stockholm. 

Through the influence of Scott The American 
and Foreign Christian Union called Rosenius to 
work as its missionary in Sweden. He accepted 
the call and received a yearly salary as long as 
Dr. Baird, known as a zealous temperance worker, 
was the secretary of the Union. During the suc- 
ceeding ten years Rosenius held religious meet- 
ings (conventicles) in various homes and in hired 
rooms, mostly in "Brodrasalen," which belonged 
to the Herrnhuters, with whom he associated him- 
self. Among the clergy especially this activity 
of Rosenius aroused opposition, and his enterprise 
was severly criticised from several pulpits. The 
American Union worked, however, not in the 
special interest of any certain denomination, but 
for the awakening of people of America and of 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 135 

several European Protestant Churches to a better 
Christian life and greater zeal for the upbuilding 
of the kingdom of God. Scott had not engaged 
in any proselytism in Sweden in behalf of the 
Methodist Church, and Rosenius dissented so far 
from the peculiar doctrines of that Church, that 
his adversaries have charged him with leaning 
toward hyper-evangelism during this time. 

After the shameful demonstration against Scott 
there were many in Stockholm who bitterly op- 
posed the Pietists, in Sweden called "lasare" 
(readers) for their diligent reading of the Bible 
and the books of Luther. The conventicles were 
often disturbed by abusive crowds who would 
even go so far as to throw stones, and Rosenius 
himself was sometimes seriously threatened. Af- 
ter one such tumult Rosenius was brought before 
the police magistrate, who at last declared that 
the conventicles could not be forbidden as long as 
no false doctrine was preached, and the public 
peace was not disturbed. It was especially through 
the evangelical activity of Rosenius that the par- 
liament of 1856 — 57 repealed the unfortunate 
"conventicle law" of 1726, which forbade religious 
gatherings in private houses. 

Rosenius preached to the individuals, not to the 
Church. He and his friends did not secede from 
the Lutheran Church, although they complained 



136 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

of existing abuses in the Established Church of 
Sweden. Rosenius even tried to quiet the troubled 
minds of the Readers in Norrland. "It is easy," 
he wrote, "to find fault, to complain and to disturb 
people's minds, but it is not so easy afterwards 
to quiet and guide them. Let us, in this agitated 
time, act with due deliberation, think and talk 
with reason and moderation." He was once ques- 
tioned by a Baptist : "How long do you intend to 
remain in the Established Church?" Rosenius 
answered: "So long as Jesus is there." The for- 
mer questioned again : "But how long do you think 
that He will be there?" And Rosenius answered: 
"Afl long as men are there born anew, for that is 
not the work of the devil." In "Pietisten" and in 
tracts Rosenius warned against the Baptists, who 
had begun their propaganda in Sweden in 1849. 

Partly through subscribed gifts and partly 
through loans and the sale of shares, money was 
raised in 1854, by which the English church was 
bought from the Methodist society. From 1857 
this church, now named the Bethlehem church, 
was used by Rosenius for prayer meetings and 
conventicles. Here he served as lay preacher un- 
til his death, great crowds gathering around him, 
listening devoutly to his preaching of unmerited 
grace in Christ Jesus. Here also he gently and 
earnestly pleaded with many individual sinners 




^ m 




PETER WIESELGREN. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 137 

to repent and believe the sweet gospel of free 
grace, summoning them with the call: "Come to 
Jesus, just as you are." In his preaching as well 
as in his writings, how often and how aptly Rose- 
nius interspersed powerful quotations from the 
writings of Luther ! 

This evangelical revival contributed to the or- 
ganization in Stockholm, in 1856, of "Evangeliska 
Fosterlands-Stiftelsen" (The Evangelical Nation- 
al Institute), of which the zealous Pastor H. J. 
Lundborg was the founder and Baron J. Al- 
stromer the first president. Its first executive 
committee was made up of the following, Lector 
P. M. Elmblad, Pastor H. J. Lundborg, Dr. A. F. 
Melander, and C. 0. Rosenius. In 1858 the latter 
became the principal overseer of the activity of 
the Institute's colporteurs, that is, laymen travel- 
ing around in the country to distribute religious 
tracts and to make evangelical addresses. Through 
the organization of "Evangeliska Fosterlands- 
Stiftelsen" the labor and responsibility of the 
Inner Mission work was lifted from Rosenius' 
shoulders, being removed from one single in- 
dividual to many like-minded and efficient men, 
working together for the spiritual welfare of 
the fatherland. Fosterlands-Stiftelsen began by 
publishing devotional tracts and books and distrib- 
uting them throughout the country through its 

Life Pictures. 10. 



138 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

colporteurs. Besides, it soon published various 
Lutheran standard works, such as, Luther's "Kyr- 
kopostilla," Luther's "Storre utlaggning ofver 
Pauli bref till Galaterna," Rambach's "Kristus i 
Moses," Gezelius' "Bibelverk," etc. 

Foreign Mission work was begun by Foster- 
lands-Stiftelsen in 1862, and Rosenius' "Missions- 
tidning" became its official organ. Rosenius him- 
self, the experienced, sympathetic and influential 
lay preacher, assumed the duty during all his re- 
maining years of corresponding with the Insti- 
tute's colporteurs. When necessary, he instructed 
them as to their work and visited places where 
dissensions had been caused by their activity. 

In the interest of Fosterlands-Stiftelsen's mis- 
sion work throughout the country and upon urgent 
calls from different local mission societies and 
personal friends, Rosenius undertook several ex- 
tensive journeys both to the northern and the 
southern provinces of Sweden. Wherever he went 
he preached Christ crucified to great and attentive 
audiences, glorifying the full, vicarious and com- 
plete atonement won for all sinners by His blood 
and His death on the cross. In the true spirit of 
Paul and Luther, he preached also the Law as our 
"Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might 
be justified by faith" (Gal. 3. 24). He accentu- 
ated the necessity of sanctification, and, like the 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 139 

old Pietists, he was anxious that no Christian 
should live in sin while exulting in grace and 
Christian liberty. 

Such true proclamation of free, abundant and 
unmerited grace is always needed. It was greatly 
needed in those times, and it has brought spiritual 
blessings not only to our Mother Church, but even 
to our dear Augustana Synod. In their preaching 
some of the followers of Rosenius, however, ad- 
dressed themselves too much to the feelings of 
their hearers. Those who expressed joy over the 
free grace they too readily declared saved and 
the children of God. When, in his humility and 
fear of flattery, Rosenius called himself "a great 
sinner," this true description of a believing Chris- 
tian was adopted by many who only imitated his 
words, having no true experience of the war be- 
tween the Spirit and the flesh. Commenting on 
Psalm 103, he said : "When a man talks about his 
great weakness and his many defects but at the 
same time is contented and proud — oh, what a 
painful sight, what a loathsome voice." 

That Rosenius was no partisan, that he scorned 
praise and frowned on self -righteousness, may be 
gathered from the following, told by his old friend 
Dr. C. A. Bergman of Vinslof. "When in the last 
year of his life and for the last time Rosenius 
visited the parish of Vinslof, he preached, to the 



140 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

astonishment of all, with great power to a large 
audience in the parish church. Returning to the 
parsonage after the service, tired and weak, he 
was met on the porch by a farmer, P. Swensson 
of Wanneberga, who had known him previously 
and who now wished to greet him specially. 'This 
is the man,' I said, 'who changed his distillery into 
a meeting house for prayer, and in that hall you 
preached ten years ago. Now he has transformed 
his whole house into a preparatory school for 
young men who are to be sent to Johannelund 
(the Foreign Mission school of Fosterlands-Stif- 
telsen).' 'Well/ he said in a faint voice, 'pray to 
God for grace and pardon for that good work V " 

C. 0. Rosenius was one of the first members of 
"Sallskapet for beredandet af en Diakonissean- 
stalt" (The Deaconess Institution Society), or- 
ganized in 1849. The Deaconess Institution, 
especially under the wise leadership of the pious 
Dr. J. Chr. Bring, 1862 — 98, has been a source 
of great blessing to the church life of Sweden. 

The circulation of "Pietisten" and the value of 
its contents increased year by year. Its early 
volumes were reprinted, and in this reprint every- 
thing was omitted that might be considered not 
strictly and genuinely Lutheran. Many of Rose- 
nius' beautiful religious songs were printed with 
popular melodies composed or collected by Oscar 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 141 

Ahnfelt, a lay preacher, who in the Bethlehem 
church and elsewhere sang them to the accompani- 
ment of his harp. Together with similar hymns 
they were published by Ahnfelt in his "Andeliga 
Sanger" (Spiritual Hymns) and were frequently 
sung in homes and conventicles. The profound 
Scriptural explanation by Rosenius of the Epistle 
to the Romans appeared as articles in the last 
volumes of "Pietisten" and was published sep- 
arately in two volumes. This popular commen- 
tary, written "for edification in faith and godli- 
ness," is his mature and best literary production 
and a splendid gift to the Swedish Lutheran 
Church for all coming times. Rosenius' Explana- 
tion of the Epistle to the Romans, together with 
his "Betraktelser for hvar dag i aret" (Meditations 
for Every Day in the Year), are diligently read 
and highly valued in many homes not only in 
Sweden but also in the Augustana Synod. These 
books deserve to be used even more extensively 
and attentively than they are at present. It is a 
great misfortune that after the death of Rosenius 
the editorship of "Pietisten" was left in the hands 
of P. P. Waldenstrom, who since 1872, in "Pietis- 
ten" and his other writings, has contradicted the 
Biblical and Lutheran doctrine of Christ's atone- 
ment. 

On a visit to Gothenburg in 1867, Rosenius, 



142 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

while preaching in St. John's church, suffered a 
stroke of apoplexy and was carried from the pulpit 
by his brother, Professor Martin Rosenius, and 
Doctors Wieselgren and Fjellstedt. His left side 
was paralyzed, but after a few weeks' care at a 
sanatorium he was able to undertake a voyage to 
his home in Stockholm. His strength apparently 
restored, he began to preach again, his last ser- 
mon being on the text from the 53rd chapter of 
Isaiah. A new and violent stroke of apoplexy, 
however, ended his blessed life on the 24th of 
February, 1868, and four days later Bishop A. F. 
Beckman conducted the burial service with a 
heartfelt sermon on Rev. 14: 13, "Blessed are 
the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : 
yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their 
labors, and their works do follow them." 

The venerable Doctor Peter Wieselgren, dean 
of the cathedral of Gothenburg, was the foremost, 
and one of the noblest, promoters of Christian 
temperance reform in Sweden. He was born in 
1800, the son of pious parents, at Vislanda, Sma- 
land, and began his studies at the grammar school 
of Vaxio. There he experienced a spiritual awak- 
ening and tried soon afterwards to lead others to 
Christ and to a better life. Thus in 1819 he, to- 
gether with five fellow students, organized the 
first temperance society in Sweden. The follow- 



THE CHUKCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 143 

ing two paragraphs of its constitution are 
worthy to be remembered: "We will also encour- 
age one another to be steadfast in the faith and 
to increase in the knowledge of the Lord. Mind- 
ful of our own faults, we will practice forbearance 
toward one another, and pray to merciful God for 
forgiveness. We also renounce, each one for him- 
self and without burdening the conscience of 
others, all use of intoxicating liquors as detri- 
mental to health and apt to be pernicious if per- 
sisted in." In 1820 Wieselgren became a graduate 
student at the university of Lund. Having earned 
the degree of Ph. D. in 1823, he became assistant 
professor of esthetics the following year, and in 
1830 acting university librarian. 

At the university Wieselgren was fascinated 
both by the instructive and thorough catechisation 
conducted by Schartau in the cathedral and by 
the renowned Tegner's genius as manifested in 
the lecture room. Wieselgren himself was known 
as a popular instructor, but from childhood he 
had desired to become a preacher, and, having 
first tried in vain to be sent as a missionary to 
Japan, he was ordained in 1833 as a minister of 
the gospel. His first pastoral charge was at 
Vasterstad, where he found gross ignorance and 
vice fostered by general drunkenness and idleness. 
Courageously he took up the work of an evangel- 



144 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

ical reformer among his parishioners, preached 
the gospel of Christ in its simplicity and purity, 
and tried to co-operate with the better element of 
the parish. When he afterwards addressed him- 
self to some men of influence for co-operation in 
organizing a temperance society, the plan miscar- 
ried, although such a society had been organized 
in Stockholm by Samuel Owen as early as 1831. 
Wieselgren then turned with his temperance re- 
form directly to the common people. Among 
them he distributed Bibles and devotional books, 
preached and catechized, and induced his parish- 
ioners to erect school houses. 

On account of his earnest work Wieselgren at 
first made some bitter enemies, so that even his 
life was in peril. But he was not afraid, feeling 
assured that nobody, contrary to the will of God, 
could do him bodily harm. He continued to ad- 
monish the ungodly, to comfort penitent sinners, 
and to help those who were in need and distress. 
By the grace of God a new spiritual life was 
awakened in his parishes, and within this terri- 
tory Wieselgren in 1836 organized The Temper- 
ance Society of Vasterstad, with himself as presi- 
dent. The society was organized with 80 mem- 
bers, but after a year it numbered 1,500 mem- 
bers, the beneficial effects of such an organization 
in the community becoming at once apparent. The 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 145 

principle adopted by the society was that total 
abstinence from intoxicating drinks was the best 
means for abolishing their use and the consequent 
misery. Those who joined the society were re- 
quired to sign a pledge to abstain from all per- 
sonal use of intoxicating drinks and to promise 
not to offer, give, manufacture, or sell such drinks 
to any person under any circumstance whatso- 
ever. 

Naturally sympathetic and tender-hearted, Wie- 
selgren had a wonderful gift for pleading with 
fallen young men about their spiritual and tem- 
poral welfare. How earnestly he portrayed to 
them the deep misery of the prodigal son ! How 
tenderly he depicted the free and unbounded love 
the penitent returning prodigal would receive 
from the heavenly Father for Christ's sake! In 
His mercy God blessed the endeavors of His faith- 
ful servant. The temperance reform spread rap- 
idly over the whole province of Skane, Professors 
Thomander and Florman, Pastors Ahnfelt, Kal- 
lenberg, Hasselquist, and other friends being pro- 
moters of the new movement. From Skane it soon 
spread over the other provinces of Sweden, as far 
as Helsingland, where among others Pastors Sef- 
strom and L. P. Esbjorn held temperance meet- 
ings. In the report for the years 1838 and 1839 
The Swedish Temperance Society states that no 



146 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

less than seventeen societies were the result of 
Wieselgren's work, and that during the last years 
30,000 persons had joined the temperance socie- 
ties, mostly in places where he had preached tem- 
perance. In 1838 he traveled for a period of six 
weeks in the southern provinces of Sweden, pre- 
senting the temperance cause to more than 25,000 
people. The most remarkable of these meetings 
was that of Madesjo, Smaland, where several 
thousand persons from more than 30 congrega- 
tions were gathered. And it was by his courage 
and eloquence that the temperance cause was 
saved at the general meeting of temperance socie- 
ties in 1841 at Jonkoping, when other leaders 
despaired and were absent. 

During the year 1840, Wieselgren, sacrificing 
strength, time, and money, traveled about 2,000 
miles, mostly over difficult country roads, and 
spoke to more than 60,000 people. Of that journey 
a contemporary account gives the following 
graphic but trustworthy description : "The news- 
papers are full of descriptions of how Pastor Wie- 
selgren travels from town to town, delivering 
temperance addresses, converting drunkards, and 
preaching the gospel to all men. Generally people 
show their appreciation of his great talent, his 
flashing eloquence and enthusiastical zeal. His 
journey is a veritable triumphal procession. 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 147 

Wherever he travels the brandy bottles come 
tumbling down, and the saloonkeepers are fright- 
ened. In some places you may, however, hear 
some cold and self-important men talk about his 
eccentricity, averring the temperance cause might 
be advocated with more temperance. It may be 
acknowledged that at times he did not rightly 
adapt the address to his audience. It even appears 
that he came near being treated in Uppsala as the 
Apostle Paul was treated in Athens. But those 
were exceptions to the general and just admira- 
tion accorded him in the whole country for his 
eloquence and patriotic zeal." 

The good cause of temperance continued to 
prosper, and in 1847 there were in Sweden 420 
separate temperance societies with 100,700 active 
members, mostly farmers and workingmen. From 
that year the temperance movement languished, 
partly because the first enthusiasm was gone, 
partly by reason of the unsettled conditions of 
that time, partly also because Wieselgren was un- 
able to take as active a part in the campaign as 
formerly. All temperance legislation in Sweden 
dates from Wieselgren's temperance movement. 

King Oscar I., who favored temperance reform, 
in 1847 appointed Wieselgren pastor of the large 
city parish of Helsingborg. There he preached, 
catechized, and visited the old, the sick, and the 



148 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

poor ; but at the same time he took an active part 
in the temperance work, in the Bible Society, and 
in the Foreign Mission Society, the latter organ- 
ized in 1845, at Lund, by himself, J. H. Thoman- 
der, P. Fjellstedt, and others. He took a lively 
interest in the Scandinavian movement of that 
time, and continued his literary work, writing 
temperance literature, editing, together with oth- 
ers, "Biografiskt Lexicon," and re-editing the first 
part of his work, "Sveriges Skona Litteratur." 
Wieselgren extended his activity to Stockholm, 
where, on an urgent call from Inner Mission So- 
ciety, he preached during May, 1850, twenty- 
three times at different places to immense crowds 
of people. Some of these sermons were published 
in a book, entitled, "Tio Guds bud i Nya Testa- 
mentets forklaringsljus" (The Ten Command- 
ment in the Light of the New Testament). In 
1849 Wieselgren, together with Thomander and 
other friends, revised and published an edition of 
the Swedish Psalm book, that version being used 
in the Augustana Synod. 

Wieselgren had won the love and confidence of 
nearly all his parishioners, when, in 1857, he was 
called to become dean of the cathedral of Gothen- 
burg. He accepted the call at the urgent request 
of Thomander, who then exchanged that charge 
for the bishopric of Lund. For nearly twenty 



THE CHUECH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 149 

years Wieselgren was dean of the great cathedral 
church of Gothenburg, accomplishing during that 
time a stupendous and blessed work, for which 
he obtained strength from the power of the love 
of Christ. Though advanced in years, he very 
often went to the city asylum as soon as he had 
completed the morning service at the cathedral. 
At this asylum, where the most wretched people 
found temporary lodging, he preached the gos- 
pel to them in a crowded room, infested with 
vermin and permeated with malodorous vapors. 
In the afternoons he was very often seen in the 
outskirts of the city, visiting the homes of old and 
sick people and speaking words of comfort and 
cheer to them. His friends tried in vain to induce 
him to stay at home and take needed rest. But 
the dean answered; "After my experience, can I 
do otherwise than I am doing? The hour in which 
I am called may be just the one when the Lord 
needs me. Have I any reason to doubt the power 
of the Lord to give me all the strength I may need 
for such a moment?" 

In Gothenburg, then a city of 36,000 inhabit- 
ants, with 136 saloons, Dean Wieselgren always 
had the whisky interests to contend with. Drunk- 
enness being at its worst on Sundays, he tried to 
stop the sale of liquors on that day and was suc- 
cessful in getting 8,800 persons to sign a petition 



150 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

asking that the sale of liquor be prohibited on 
Sundays and holidays. The petition was not 
granted, but resulted two years afterwards in 
what is known as the Gothenburg system. In the 
temperance cause Dean Wieselgren always had 
the assistance of Consul Oscar Ekman, well-known 
to us as a benefactor of Augustana College. The 
dean was interested in all other enterprises for 
the moral and spiritual welfare of his countrymen. 
Thus, for instance, he often went down to the 
harbor and preached to emigrants, admonishing 
them to live a Christian life and join Lutheran 
Augustana congregations. 

In Helsingborg several friends who sympa- 
thized with Dr. Wieselgren in his work used to 
gather around him, and at one of their gatherings, 
in 1849, T. N. Hasselquist, then pastor of Akarp, 
in northern Skane, and Pastor L. P. Esbjorn, then 
on his way to America, were present. When Pro- 
fessor Hasselquist visited Sweden in 1870, to 
bring with him future assistants in the pastoral 
work of the Augustana Synod, it was in the resi- 
dence of Dean Wieselgren he gathered them, and 
from his home they departed with the good wishes 
and hearty blessings of the dean. 

Dr. Peter Wieselgren died in Gothenburg in the 
year 1877, beloved and mourned by all who had 
learned to know him. According to the will of 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 151 

the deceased, the burial service was conducted 
without any necrology, by his friend Dr. Peter 
Fjellstedt. 

Doctor Peter Fjellstedt, born in 1802, in the 
parish of Sillerud, Varmland, is the man who more 
than many others aroused in the Church of Swe- 
den a live and active interest in the foreign mis- 
sion cause. Having done arduous work as a mis- 
sionary and teacher, first among the heathen in 
East India and afterwards among the Turks in 
Asia Minor, he promoted a universal mission 
spirit among the Swedish people by his strenuous 
efforts as traveling preacher and editor of mis- 
sionary literature. 

In a little tract entitled, "The Shepherd Boy," 
P. Fjellstedt himself wrote the story of his child- 
hood and youth; and it is very touching to read 
how, sighing and praying to God, he walked afoot 
many miles to Karlstad, there to begin his studies 
for the holy ministry. During his first years at 
Karlstad, cold and hunger were his daily lot in 
his poor lodgings; but by his unusual diligence 
and marked linguistic ability he acquired friends 
through whose support he could at last take up 
studies for ministerial graduation at the universi- 
ty of Lund. Fjellstedt then preached several 
times. When one of his hearers in the anguish 
of his soul had consulted him to obtain assurance 



152 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

of salvation, the young preacher realized that he 
himself was still spiritually blind. He tells of it 
himself in the following words : "Much depressed, 
I examined myself, and from my heart I wished 
that I could become a true Christian. All the air 
castles that I had built vanished before the beams 
of grace. The self-kindled light went out, and 
self-prepared food for the soul could no longer 
satisfy me. I began to suffer spiritual hunger, 
which was something new to me, and with the 
prodigal son I said: 'I will arise and go to my 
Father/ This I did, and the Lord met me with 
his fatherly love. From that time on the Lord 
Jesus has kept me from going astray." 

Fjellstedt was ordained a minister in 1829. He 
could not resist his heart's longing to serve his 
fellow men who were in darkness and the shadow 
of death. As the Church of Sweden had no for- 
eign mission field of its own he almost immediate- 
ly requested and received a call from the English 
Church Missionary Society through the Evangel- 
ical Basel Missionary Society. Having prepared 
for his special calling by studies first in London 
and afterwards in Basel, he served the English 
Church Missionary Society for four years in the 
Tinnevelly Mission in Southern India, partly as 
seminary professor and partly by preaching in 
the Tamil language to the heathen. After four 




PETER FJELLSTEDT. 



THE CHUECH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 153 

years of faithful service in India, Fjellstedt, by 
reason of broken health, was compelled to return 
to England. But he was very soon sent by the 
same Missionary Society to Asia Minor, and here, 
at Magnesia, near Smyrna, he did diligent work 
among the Mohammedans, especially by conversa- 
tion and by distributing the Bible in Turkish. On 
account of the fanaticism both of the Turks and 
the Greeks, he met with little success. According- 
ly, in 1840, Fjellstedt left the country of the Seven 
Churches mentioned in the Revelation of St. John. 

During the next two years Fjellstedt assisted 
in revising the Turkish translation of the Holy 
Bible, and from 1842 to 1844 he was engaged in 
the service of the Basel Evangelical Missionary 
Society as its traveling preacher in Switzerland, 
Germany, and Sweden. From that time dates his 
blessed mission work in our old fatherland. In 
1843, after his arrival in Sweden, Fjellstedt began 
his missionary journeys to different parts of the 
realm, and both on Sundays and week days he 
delivered stirring addresses in the churches, awak- 
ening and edifying thousands of souls, and inter- 
esting his hearers in the salvation of the benighted 
heathen. 

The immediate result of his missionary work 
was the organization, in 1845, of the Lund Mis- 
sion Society, with the bishop as its president and 

Life Pictures. 11. 



154 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

H. Reuterdahl, J. H. Thomander, E. G. Bring, P. 
Wieselgren, etc., as directors. In the following 
year this society founded an independent Lutheran 
institute in Lund, headed by Pjellstedt, for fitting 
university students as missionaries. He accepted 
the call, although doubting the ability of the Lund 
society to support its institute and therefore de- 
siring that the new society become a branch of 
the Basel society. Fjellstedt, however, devoted 
ten years of faithful activity to this mission insti- 
tute. It was the first one of its kind in Sweden, 
and in 1849 it sent out its first missionaries, K. 
J. Fast and A. Elgquist, to China. Fast having 
been murdered by pirates, Elgquist returned home 
in discouragement. After such trials the Lund 
Mission Society ceased to be an independent body 
and became an auxiliary to the Leipzig Missionary 
Society. In the service of that society Alex. Ouch- 
terlony and G. E. Lindgren in 1853 went from 
Lund to the old Tranquebar field in India, fol- 
lowed in 1855 by Dr. A. Blomstrand and S. Ryden. 
In the following year the Lund Mission Society 
transferred all its mission work to the Swedish 
Mission Society in Stockholm, to which city the 
Lund Mission Institute was then removed. 

During the time Fjellstedt was rector of the 
mission institute in Lund he undertook extensive 
missionary journeys. In 1846 he preached 107 



THE CHUKCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 155 

times at nearly as many different places. The 
following year he extended his travels into Norr- 
land. Large and attentive audiences generally 
listened to his sermons and mission addresses. 
The country people especially manifested great 
willingness to embrace and support the foreign 
mission cause, and at many places societies were 
organized to support the Lund Mission Society. 
His own support Fjellstedt obtained from two 
monthly periodicals edited by him, namely, 
"Lunds Missionstidning" from 1846 and "Bibel- 
vannen" from 1848. We may well add that during 
these years Fjellstedt took a lively interest in the 
spiritual welfare of those of his fellow country- 
men who had emigrated to the New World. At 
the request of his friend Pastor T. N. Hasselquist, 
he recommended Pastors Erland Carlsson, 0. C. 
T. Andren, and Jonas Swensson, who, heeding the 
"Macedonian cry," accepted calls from newly or- 
ganized Swedish Lutheran congregations in 
America. 

But it was not only for the foreign mission 
cause that Fjellstedt pleaded and preached. He 
also advocated needed temperance and other moral 
reforms. In many places devout souls and also 
certain lay preachers entertained distrust, and 
even ill will, against the regular clergy ; hence he 
tried sincerely to prepare the way for a sound 



156 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

Christian church life and a better mutual under- 
standing. To this end his blessed activity as 
author and editor contributed greatly. 

In 1850 Fjellstedt began the publication of his 
popular and highly valuable "Biblia med forkla- 
ringar" (The Holy Bible with Explanations) . This 
devotional and expository work, appearing first 
in parts, was afterwards published in several edi- 
tions of three large volumes. This work is read 
and well known in many Swedish-American 
homes. In the same year he translated into Swe- 
dish Pastor W. Lohe's excellent "Gospel Postil," 
and in 1853 edited a new edition of "Concordia 
Pia," the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran 
Church. Among other books of P. Fjellstedt that 
deserve to be mentioned are "Bibliska betraktelser 
vid konfirmationsundervisning ,, (Bible Medita- 
tions at Confirmation Instruction), which ap- 
peared in 1863, and a treatise against the Walden- 
stromian delusion, "Hvad larer Bibeln om f orso- 
ningen?" (What does the Bible Teach Concerning 
Atonement?) which appeared in 1880. Many of 
Fjellstedt's meditations, sermons and addresses 
which appeared in "Bibelvannen" and "Lunds 
Missionstidning" are collected and republished in 
Dr. Fjellstedt^ "Samlade Skrifter" (Collected 
Works), Stockholm, 1883. 
In his autobiography the German professor and 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 157 

scientist, G. H. v. Schubert, mentions that his 
friend P. Fjellstedt had learned to understand 26 
different languages and could preach in 12 of 
them. From the university of Halle, Germany, 
Fjellstedt received the honorary degree of Doctor 
of Theology in 1853, at which occasion Dr. A. 
Tholuck presided. Instead of "Pastoralexamen," 
Fjellstedt published, in 1857, an academic treatise 
on "The Spiritual Priesthood and the Offices of 
the Church/' which treatise he defended in a 
disputation at Uppsala university. 

Dr. Fjellstedt's sermons and addresses are truly 
Biblical and Lutheran, and characterized by plain 
and clear language. On account of his missionary 
and pastoral activity, his great learning and his 
deep spiritual experience, he received calls from 
many different congregations. For two years he 
was pastor at ofverum, Smaland, and during the 
years 1864 — 72 he assisted his old friend Dean 
Wieselgren of Gothenburg in his assiduous pas- 
toral work. During the summers of these eight 
years Fjellstedt made several missionary journeys 
in Sweden and abroad. In the meantime he re- 
vised his Bible commentary and edited his peri- 
odicals. Poor health compelled him to retire, and 
family connections led him to sojourn at the ro- 
mantic Kornthal, Wurtemberg, from 1872 to 1876. 
Even then he made two missionary journeys to 



158 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

Sweden, and when his beloved wife, Christiana 
Schweitzerbart, died, he returned to his native 
land and took up his permanent residence there. 

The Lund Mission Institute, which had been 
transferred to Stockholm, had Pastor P. A. Ahl- 
berg as teacher for the first year. He afterwards 
founded his own mission school at Kristdala. It 
was later removed to Ahlsborg. The Mission 
Institute, however, did not receive the necessary 
support in Stockholm and was therefore removed 
to Uppsala in 1852. Under the name of "The 
Fjellstedt School" this Mission Institute was then 
changed to a school for educating and assisting 
future ministers, and as such it has prepared 
missionaries to India and Africa as well as a large 
number of pastors for the State Church of Swe- 
den. A number of students from this school have 
also come to Augustana College and Theological 
Seminary. 

After his return to Sweden in 1876, Dr. Fjell- 
stedt passed his last years in this school of his, 
assisting its rector in leading the devotional 
services on Sunday evenings, and occasionally 
making journeys to friends and congregations at 
their invitation. He often visited the noble and 
benevolent Princess Eugenie and preached occa- 
sionally before the noble and deeply religious 
Queen Sophia and her invited guests. In a letter 



THE CHURCH OF SWEDEN IN THE XIX. CENTURY 159 

to his daughter Fjellstedt said of one of these 
meetings, "The best and greatest blessing was 
that the Lord Jesus was present, yea, even as he 
was with the disciples at Emmaus." 

On the fourth of January, 1881, this faithful 
and blessed servant of the Lord entered into the 
eternal Sabbath rest. His last audible words 
were: "Life, grace, and pardon for the sake of 
Jesus Christ." His intimate friend the dean of 
Uppsala, Dr. C. A. Toren, preached a funeral 
sermon full of cordial recognition of the blessed 
labors of the departed. 



In his address at the reopening of the Luther 
Place Memorial Evangelical Lutheran Church at 
Washington, D. C, in 1905, Theodore Roosevelt, 
then president of the United States, said: "The 
Lutheran Church in this country is of very great 
power numerically and through the intelligence 
and thrift of its members ; but it will grow stead- 
ily to even greater power. It is destined to be 
one of the two or three greatest Churches and 
most important national Churches in the United 
States; one of the two or three Churches most 
distinctly American, among the forces that are 
to tell for making this great country even greater 
in the future. Therefore, a peculiar load of 
responsibility rests upon the members of this 
Church. For material being, material pros- 
perity, success in arts, in letters, great industrial 



DEC 18 1913 



160 LIFE PICTURES FROM SWEDISH CHURCH HISTORY 

triumphs, all of them, and all the structure raised 
thereon, will be evanescent as a dream, if it does 
not rest on the righteousness that exalteth the 
nation." 

If the Lutheran Church in America adheres 
faithfully to Christ and to her evangelical con- 
fession of justification by faith in Him, she will 
be the strongest bulwark against Romanism, sec- 
tarianism and infidelity. Let us Lutherans stand 
up for Jesus and His gospel; let us arise and 
follow Him to victory over Satan and the world ! 
"Like a mighty army moves the Church of God : 
Brothers, we are treading where the saints have 
trod." 

Blessed be the memory of our fathers, who 
have confessed the pure and holy gospel of Christ 
and bequeathed it to us as a sacred heritage ! May 
the Lord bless and protect His Lutheran Zion, 
its congregations, its schools, and its mission 
work, that we also, like our fathers, be one in the 
Lord, be such faithful confessors of Jesus Christ, 
that He will confess us before His Father in 
heaven. Praise be to God, our heavenly Father, 
for all the manifold blessings graciously bestowed 
upon our Lutheran Church in this country and 
in our old fatherland. 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, 
yea, and for ever. Amen. Hebrews 13 : 8. 



